Oxford COVID-19 vaccine prompts immune response among adults old and young, AstraZeneca says

[snoop1130]

Oxford COVID-19 vaccine prompts immune response among adults old and young, AstraZeneca says

By Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Kelland and Kate Holton

 

FILE PHOTO: A test tube labeled with the vaccine is seen in front of AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford produces a similar immune response in both older and younger adults, and adverse responses were lower among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday.

 

A vaccine that works is seen as a game-changer in the battle against the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 1.15 million people, hammered the global economy and shuttered normal life across the world.

 

"It is encouraging to see immunogenicity responses were similar between older and younger adults and that reactogenicity was lower in older adults, where the COVID-19 disease severity is higher," an AstraZeneca spokesman told Reuters.

 

"The results further build the body of evidence for the safety and immunogenicity of AZD1222," the spokesman said, referring to the technical name of the vaccine.

 

The news that older people get an immune response from the vaccine is positive because the immune system weakens with age and older people are those most at risk of dying from the virus.

 

The Financial Times reported earlier that the vaccine, being developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca, triggers protective antibodies and T-cells in older age groups - among those most at risk from the virus.

 

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be one of the first from big pharma to secure regulatory approval, along with Pfizer and BioNTech's candidate.

 

If it works, a vaccine would allow the world to return to some measure of normality after the tumult of the pandemic.

 

Immunogenicity blood tests carried out on a subset of older participants echo data released in July which showed the vaccine generated "robust immune responses" in a group of healthy adults aged between 18 and 55, the Financial Times reported.

 

Details of the finding are expected to be published shortly in a clinical journal, the FT said. It did not name the publication.

 

OXFORD VACCINE

 

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a vaccine was not yet ready though he was preparing logistics for a possible roll out.

"I would expect the bulk of the roll out to be in the first half of next year," Hancock told the BBC.

 

Asked if some people could receive a vaccine this year he told the BBC: "I don't rule that out but that is not my central expectation."

 

"We want to be ready in case everything goes perfectly but it's not my central expectation that we'll be doing that this year, but the programme is progressing well, we're not there yet," Hancock said.

 

Called AZD1222 or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, the vaccine was developed by Oxford University scientists and licensed to AstraZeneca in April, which took on the task of scaling trials and production.

 

The vaccine is likely to provide protection for about a year, CEO Pascal Soriot said in June.

 

The British drugmaker has signed several supply and manufacturing deals with companies and governments around the world as it gets closer to reporting early results of a late-stage clinical trial.

 

AstraZeneca resumed the U.S. trial of the experimental vaccine after approval by U.S. regulators, the company said on Friday.

 

Staff at a London hospital trust have been told to be ready to receive the first batches of the vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc, The Sun newspaper reported on Monday.

 

The Sun said the hospital, which was not identified, was told to prepare for the vaccine from the "week commencing the 2 November".

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-10-26

 

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[steve187]

seems good news

 

[madmen]

Huge win for Thailand who has production rights. Im guessing there will be  a no jab no fly order for farangs at some ridiculous price ????

[ExpatOilWorker]

Good news and using chimpanzee cold virus is one of the most complex, but best way of creating immunity. 

Still a long way to go and they need to test people older than 55 years. 

[4MyEgo]

No news on the person that died, you know cause of death etc etc.

 

The news sounds promising, albeit I will be holding off as long as possible for any jab.

[xylophone]

26 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Good news and using chimpanzee cold virus is one of the most complex, but best way of creating immunity. 

And it might help me climb trees better!

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Good news and using chimpanzee cold virus is one of the most complex, but best way of creating immunity. 

Still a long way to go and they need to test people older than 55 years. 

 

They've been testing on people far older than the 18 to 55 group - this news isn't very clear but mentions the old news from July that the vaccine works in the 18 to 55 year olds - the new news here is referring to a new study on people over 55 and into old age. Those more at risk.....

 

So there's not a long way to go, it's nearly there....

[tandor]

17 hours ago, madmen said:

Huge win for Thailand who has production rights. Im guessing there will be  a no jab no fly order for farangs at some ridiculous price ????

...oh! but they promised no double pricing any longer...not sure when that is/was to commence!

[tandor]

17 hours ago, xylophone said:

And it might help me climb trees better!

..primates are no longer available for trialling...looks like Mice and Men.

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, madmen said:

Huge win for Thailand who has production rights. Im guessing there will be  a no jab no fly order for farangs at some ridiculous price ????

Yes, along with the $100.000 covid insurance scam and the cost of the ASQ hotels.

[cormanr7]

The only things these trials (may) show -in the best case- is that there is an immune response of some sorts and there are no major side-effects. This does NOT mean that vaccinated individuals are protected from severe COVID-19 infection. With the low prevalence of COVID (typically something like 20-30,000 per million inhabitants in the worst affected countries, this being cumulative data over a long period stretching from Feb to mid October, most of these have healed) a trial with 30,000 people is next to useless to establish efficacy against severe COVID as not enough persons will get infected to make any statistical conclusion vs a placebo (control) group.  There is a good reason that there is now talk of deliberately infecting vaccinated volunteers with COVID to see if they are protected, at least to the extent that they will only get a mild disease.

So don't subscribe to all sorts of conspiracy theories but try to be a bit critical (I have been an ad-hoc reviewer for a high impact Biotechnol. journal for 30 years) of what you read and look at it from various angles. 

[TSF]

19 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

No news on the person that died, you know cause of death etc etc.

 

The news sounds promising, albeit I will be holding off as long as possible for any jab.

The person who died a few days ago and briefly halted the trails wasn't given the vaccine. So the trails resumed immediately after.

[rosst]

20 hours ago, ukrules said:

 

They've been testing on people far older than the 18 to 55 group - this news isn't very clear but mentions the old news from July that the vaccine works in the 18 to 55 year olds - the new news here is referring to a new study on people over 55 and into old age. Those more at risk.....

 

So there's not a long way to go, it's nearly there....

I noticed it is expected to be valid for one year, an annual event, now there is a money spinner 

[TSF]

13 minutes ago, rosst said:

I noticed it is expected to be valid for one year, an annual event, now there is a money spinner 

Yep, looks like it'll be an annual jab. But whatever, it's better than what we have now, which is nothing. The optimistic probability is once given to enough people the vaccine will halt the rapid spread, the pandemic will be officially ended, and  covid will become like HIV is today...still there, still very dangerous, but treatable and no longer the huge threat it once was.

[rosst]

14 hours ago, TSF said:

Yep, looks like it'll be an annual jab. But whatever, it's better than what we have now, which is nothing. The optimistic probability is once given to enough people the vaccine will halt the rapid spread, the pandemic will be officially ended, and  covid will become like HIV is today...still there, still very dangerous, but treatable and no longer the huge threat it once was.

I am dissapointed that not enough resources are being dedicated to an effective treatment regime. 

[steelepulse]

With a 99.95% survivial rate on those under 70, this should be an option for those that fall into the high risk category, or those that want to get a vaccine for their peace of mind or whatever. It should not play into traveling or anything else.  Whether that happens is a different story.

 

From what I have read, the only bar these vaccines need to pass is to make mild symptoms milder to be considered a success.  That's hardly a success, but it sure is a good money maker.

 

https://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/BLT.20.265892.pdf

 

For people < 70 years old, the infection fatality rate of COVId-19 across 40 locations with available data ranged from 0.00% to 0.31% (median 0.05%); the corrected values were similar.

[FarFlungFalang]

19 hours ago, cormanr7 said:

The only things these trials (may) show -in the best case- is that there is an immune response of some sorts and there are no major side-effects. This does NOT mean that vaccinated individuals are protected from severe COVID-19 infection. With the low prevalence of COVID (typically something like 20-30,000 per million inhabitants in the worst affected countries, this being cumulative data over a long period stretching from Feb to mid October, most of these have healed) a trial with 30,000 people is next to useless to establish efficacy against severe COVID as not enough persons will get infected to make any statistical conclusion vs a placebo (control) group.  There is a good reason that there is now talk of deliberately infecting vaccinated volunteers with COVID to see if they are protected, at least to the extent that they will only get a mild disease.

So don't subscribe to all sorts of conspiracy theories but try to be a bit critical (I have been an ad-hoc reviewer for a high impact Biotechnol. journal for 30 years) of what you read and look at it from various angles. 

The only angle this these vaccines will be looked at is from the profit angle where governments will pay big pharma huge sums with tax payer's money and then claim they are providing the vaccines for free.

[donnacha]

19 hours ago, rosst said:

I noticed it is expected to be valid for one year, an annual event, now there is a money spinner 

Astrazeneca will not being making a profit on this vaccine.
 

 

4 hours ago, rosst said:

I am dissapointed that not enough resources are being dedicated to an effective treatment regime. 

So, just to be clear, you are don't like the idea of the pharma companies making money ... but you also want them to pour more resources into making a better version.

For what it is worth, massive resources have been poured into this and all the other vaccine projects. This international effort is unparalleled in medical history, with practically everyone with experience in the area focused on finding the best possible solution.