Even a politician as tenaciously optimistic as Matt Hancock was struggling to put any positive spin on it: the world has woken up to the disappointing news that trials of the Oxford vaccine for Covid-19 had been paused after an adverse reaction in one patient. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was one of seven in Phase 3 trials, in which doses are administered to thousands of people of different ages and varying states of health. A spokesperson at Oxford has said the pause ‘is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the studies, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.’
The Heath Secretary was also insistent that such a delay isn’t out of the ordinary, revealing to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that this is ‘actually the second time that that’s happened.’ The vaccine remains under development, Hancock insisted.
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