Can AstraZeneca ’s Vaccine Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 Virus?

In a new—yet to be peer-reviewed—study, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and its partners at the University of Oxford report that their COVID-19 shot may not only protect against disease but also help to prevent spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The news was heralded by policy makers desperate to see a vaccine that can curb spread of the disease, but scientists have been a bit more cautious. If confirmed, the results would represent a breakthrough in the COVID-19 vaccine race. So far, the shots authorized or approved around the world have shown strong protection against moderate to severe disease, but haven’t definitively proven that people who get vaccinated are less likely to spread the COVID-19 virus. But the data, say some experts, is confusing, so it’s hard to adequately evaluate the company’s claim that the shot can actually slow the spread of COVID-19 or not. In the study, published on the Lancet pre-print server (which means the results have not been peer-reviewed, a gold standard for ensuring the scientific rigor of the findings) AstraZeneca and Oxford scientists report that two doses of their vaccine was overall 66.7% effective in protecting against COVID-19 disease. As part of its analysis, the research team also collected nasal swabs from vaccinated and unvaccinated study volunteers in the U.K. every week and tested them for the virus. The scientists found that positive tests were about 50% lower among people who got two doses of...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news