U.S. Data Shows AstraZeneca Vaccine is Effective for All Adults
The pharmaceutical company assures Americans this vaccine is the shot to choose.
- By Shereen Hashem
- Mar 23, 2021
A new vaccine might be arriving soon to help protect Americans in their fight agains the coronavirus. AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has provided strong protection against the disease thus far, limiting the number of hospitalizations and deaths in adults.
The pharmaceutical company says its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine in Europe.
In a statement, AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine was 79 percent effective at preventing symptomatic cases as well as 100 percent effective in stopping severe disease and hospitalizations. Full data hasn’t been published so it’s unclear if there were enough cases to make the findings accurate.
AstraZeneca will apply for U.S. authorization for vaccine distribution for the FDA. The shot has been authorized in more that 70 countries and it’s a pillar of a U.N.-backed project: COVAX which aims to give COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries.
“The benefits of these results will mainly be for the rest of the world where confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine has been erode, largely by political and media comment,” Stephen Evans, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said.
Johnson & Johnson and CanSino Biologics make COVID-19 vaccines using the same technology but using different cold viruses.
AstraZeneca said it would continue to analyze the U.S. data before submitting it to the FDA in the coming weeks.
It said the data would also be published soon in a peer-reviewed journal. Click here to learn more about the vaccine.
About the Author
Shereen Hashem is the Associate Content Editor for Occupational Health & Safety magazine.