Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine(ox.ac.uk)

595 pointsby mychaelangelo6 tahun yang lalu545 comments

ox.ac.uk

Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-23-oxford-university-breakthrough-global-covid-19-vaccine

545 comments

mcdowall6 tahun yang lalu

The key differentiator here is the storage requirements (2-8c ‘normal refrigerator’).

That’s much more accessible to developing / low GDP countries as opposed the cumbersome and expensive storage requirements of the other two.

sgt1016 tahun yang lalu

An important fact that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is that 3m doses have been manufactured already and are available in the UK supply chain today. "All" that's required is the approval from the regulator - but I guess that is still a little way off. 3m would do a lot of good though - frontline staff, the most vulnerable, hotspots....

ggm6 tahun yang lalu

Contrary to some views here, I am very heartened by a press release which doesn't gild the lily. This restores a lot of faith in reporting.

summerlight6 tahun yang lalu

It's interesting to layman's eyes that the dosing regime using 1.5 doses is more effective than the one using 2 doses as I would expect the inverse; are there any plausible explanations for this?

jonplackett6 tahun yang lalu

We (Britain) may have totally screwed up our general response to COVID. But at least we’re still pretty good at science. Thanks Oxford for saving the day.

camkego6 tahun yang lalu

This statement seems a big deal: "There were no hospitalised or severe cases in anyone who received the vaccine"

Is that also true of the Pfizer and Moderna trials? Are the various trials measuring 'effectiveness' in the same way? Is there a standard for 'effectiveness' in these Covid-19 trials?

It will take some digging and real effort to compare the risks and benefits of the various vaccines coming to market.

arichard1236 tahun yang lalu

Here [1] it says the vaccine was designed mostly over the weekend of 11th Jan 2020. Here we are 10 months later and we know it works. If our knowledge of vaccine design is so good experts can design a vaccine that works over a weekend, what new breakthroughs are required to reduce the time between then and now substantially? A lot of benefit could have been had if we'd been able to get along this path more quickly.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/23/coronavirus-sc...

rusticpenn6 tahun yang lalu

Correct me if I am wrong, Oxford uses traditional Vaccine design technique (using a weaker virus and adding spikes or something similar) while Biontech(Pfizer) and ModeRNA use MRNA which is completely new technique (messenger RNA).

This is awesome for more than just vaccinations. Traditionally the groups allocating govt funding to science and industries are very risk averse and this could be one more example where taking risks can payoff.

jpxw6 tahun yang lalu

From AstraZeneca:

> One dosing regimen (n=2,741) showed vaccine efficacy of 90% when AZD1222 was given as a half dose, followed by a full dose at least one month apart, and another dosing regimen (n=8,895) showed 62% efficacy when given as two full doses at least one month apart. The combined analysis from both dosing regimens (n=11,636) resulted in an average efficacy of 70%. All results were statistically significant (p<=0.0001).

Also:

> and no hospitalisations or severe cases of the disease were reported in participants receiving the vaccine.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020...

agd6 tahun yang lalu

I think I read (and I may be wrong) that the costs for the vaccines per dose were roughly as follows:

Moderna: £45, Pfizer: £20, Oxford: £3,

The Oxford one is also easier to store and transport.

howlgarnish6 tahun yang lalu

That headline is not quite correct. From the article:

> Phase 3 interim analysis including 131 Covid-19 cases indicates that the vaccine is [on average] 70.4% effective when combining data from two dosing regimens ... In the two different dose regimens vaccine efficacy was 90% in one and 62% in the other

And to be clear, it's not just one dose vs two:

> tests on two different dose regimens showing that the vaccine was 90% effective if administered at a half dose and then at a full dose, or 62% effective if administered in two full doses.

So "Oxford vaccine is up to 90% effective", perhaps?

rixrax6 tahun yang lalu

Is there any research or early guestimates about risks (or benefits) of getting multiple different vaccines for Covid? E.g. What if one gets this, and then later moderna vaccine? Will they fight each other, or work together or is it unknown whats going to happen?

jl27186 tahun yang lalu

In case anybody was wondering what this actually is: “The ChAdOx1 vaccine is a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector.” They put a corona spike sequence into it.

By comparison, the Moderna is making a RNA vaccine, and BioNTech an epitope vaccine (the actual protein).

The ‘invasive’ effect is decreasing in that order. Oxford’s ChAdOx1 infects your cells to create RNA, then protein, then T-cell recognition/apoptosis, then epitopes trigger B-cell antibody production. Moderna RNA skips the infection part. BioNTech epitopes go right to B-cells.

But, they also have deceasing stability and manufacturing scalability in that order.

toshk6 tahun yang lalu

The press release is interesting. Not the best way to present their data. Immediate conclusion of many newspapers is "oxford vaccine is less effective then...".

ksec6 tahun yang lalu

Incoming possible Silly, Stupid and Lazy Questions,

1. Are there any vaccine ( of any Disease ) that are 100% effective? Or do we operate ( as I would assume ) something like 5 Nines effective rate and call it 100%?

2. Across all type of Vaccine, what are the average or median effective rate? i.e Should we expect Vaccine to be 90%+ effective in the first place? Or is that a wrong expectation to make?

3. What happens in the case of 10% ineffective, do they take a third dose?

bigpumpkin6 tahun yang lalu

"These preliminary data indicate that the vaccine is 70.4% effective, with tests on two different dose regimens showing that the vaccine was 90% effective if administered at a half dose and then at a full dose, or 62% effective if administered in two full doses."

datameta6 tahun yang lalu

So important: "A key element of Oxford’s partnership with AstraZeneca is the joint commitment to provide the vaccine on a not-for-profit basis for the duration of the pandemic across the world, and in perpetuity to low- and middle-income countries."

jakozaur6 tahun yang lalu

Title is misleading. They tested few configurations, we should use the most optimal one, not the average. Much better source: https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020...

Good:

+ likely 90% effective if we use optimal dosing

+ no significant side effective. Looks better than Pfizer or Moderna.

+ already pre-produced at huge scale, 3 Bln doses in 2021

+ easy to store and administer, just regular fridge required

+ several times cheaper than mRNA

+ more traditional vaccine than novel mRNA, less tail risk in production and scaling up the process

Not good:

- two doses, efficient one month after first injection

- likely public will be confused about efficiency due to dosing regime

Beggers19606 tahun yang lalu

Beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, with coroanvirus.

Every positive announcement raises my spirits slightly.

__warlord__6 tahun yang lalu

In general or specific to Covid-19 vaccines, does anyone knows what happens if you get vaccinated after you got the virus?

jliptzin6 tahun yang lalu

How many different viruses are there that cause the common cold? About 200? If we can get an effective vaccine for this coronavirus in under a year why aren't we working on all the other coronaviruses and rhinoviruses? I know nothing about biology but let's say it costs $1 billion to develop and test a successful vaccine for a common cold virus, worldwide for $200 billion that isn't that much to not have to deal with colds anymore. Plus it seems like one vaccine might provide protection for multiple different viruses. Or do they mutate too quickly to keep up?

m12k6 tahun yang lalu

"There were no hospitalised or severe cases in anyone who received the vaccine"

Does anyone know if there's data for this and the other vaccines, whether any of those that still end up infected under the trials have had any of the secondary symptoms such as missing sense of smell, reduced cognitive function, reduced bio-motor functions, cardiac damage and so on? Not dying from a lung infection is obviously the most important, but some of the other organ damage that corona-virus can cause is pretty scary too, and I'd like to know whether the vaccines seem to prevent this too.

christkv6 tahun yang lalu

I really still hope mRNA vaccines work well and that we keep investing in them. The potential too rapidly create new vaccines and deploy them when needed without requiring a vector will be crucial to counter future pandemics.

Once the oxford vaccine is deployed I suspect they will then have to create a new vector if they need to create another batch in the future as your body might have developed immunity to the vector virus itself making future doses ineffective.

andy_ppp6 tahun yang lalu

I find it a bit weird that there are fewer asymptomatic cases with this vaccine? Is it somehow increasing the immune response to COVID-19?

markvdb6 tahun yang lalu

Why do they sabotaged their own messaging by using the 70% number? Reading further, it looks like the vaccine is 90% efficient.

Also, "There were no hospitalised or severe cases in anyone who received the vaccine".

Can we infer anything from that statement? They seem to be suggesting that the infection might be less serious in the vaccinated population...

te_chris6 tahun yang lalu

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-07-15/oxford-s-... This is a great profile on one of the lead Oxford scientists.

maxehmookau6 tahun yang lalu

As a trial participant on this vaccine, I'm _very_ pleased by this outcome!

usaphp6 tahun yang lalu

Is that the same vaccine that was approved in Russia? I remember Russia was working with AstraZeneca on their vaccine, but not sure if it's the same one.

[deleted]6 tahun yang lalu

brutus12136 tahun yang lalu

Does anyone have a pointer on how the mrna vaccine actually works? I understand basic genetics mechanisms and how mrna works inside cells. In shot form, I assume the modified mrna strands are floating through the blood stream. What happens after the injection?

Btw .. I think public health needs to start educating people on how these things work in order to get high coverage. I am alarmed at the number of highly educated people I know who seem suspicious. This fear is just borne by a lack of understanding and can be corrected IMHO.