Australian scientists urge pause on deployment of AstraZeneca vaccine over efficacy concerns, suggest Pfizer or Moderna instead
Scientists in Australia have called for a halt to the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, claiming recent data has cast doubt on the inoculation’s ability to create herd immunity.
The scientists pointed to data from a study published in the Lancet last month that found the British-Swedish vaccine had only 62 percent efficacy, compared with over 90 percent for the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative.
A large-scale trial in the UK and Brazil reported a 62 percent effectiveness for those who were vaccinated with two full doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Australia has already purchased 53 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, however.
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