It's important to note that the AstraZeneca vaccine is adenovirus based [0], not mRNA based like the Pfizer and Moderna candidates. It was to be expected that this approach could cause more complications. mRNA vaccines have their own issues, but they do not involve live viruses being injected [1]. Instead they use lipid nanoparticles as a substrate to enter the body's cells [2].<p>[0] <a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/astrazeneca-and-oxford-university-announce-landmark-agreement-for-covid-19-vaccine.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://www.phgfoundation.org/briefing/rna-vaccines" rel="nofollow">https://www.phgfoundation.org/briefing/rna-vaccines</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2639-4" rel="nofollow">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2639-4</a>
According to the NY times, the adverse reaction was <i>transverse myelitis</i><p>> The individual also said that a volunteer in the U.K. trial had been found to have transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections.<p>More at:
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/world/covid-19-coronavirus.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/world/covid-19-coronaviru...</a>
Where it says "serious adverse reaction" do they mean the adverse reaction was serious or that it's an actual grade 3 adverse event (SAE)?
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_adverse_event" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_adverse_event</a>
Not good news, but don't panic - as the article says "Clinical holds are not uncommon", and “in large trials illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully.”
The russian vaccine is also based on adenovirus vectors.
Not clear if the method of delivery is to be blamed here, but it could be the cause for the adverse effects..
maybe this is off-topic, but it's interesting to me that this is the first time i've heard this referred to as the "astrazeneca vaccine". all the previous good-news stories seemed to call it the oxford vaccine.
> It was not immediately clear who placed the hold on the trial, though it is possible it was placed voluntarily by AstraZeneca and not ordered by any regulatory agency. The nature of the adverse reaction and when it happened were also not immediately known, though the participant is expected to recover, according to an individual familiar with the matter.<p>What would be a reason why they don't disclose this detail immediately but only to tell public the trial is on hold?
Question for people who understand the Phase 3 process - would the first step in an investigation of this type be to "unblind" the patient with the adverse reaction to see if they got the vaccine or a placebo?<p>Seems to me if the reaction <i>wasn't</i> caused by the vaccine there's a 50/50 chance this person received a placebo. In which case, you could instantly discount the vaccine being the cause.
“The platform has not been used in an approved vaccine, but has been tested in experimental vaccines against other viruses, including the Ebola virus.”<p>hmmm... this method of vaccination has never been used in an approved vaccine.
What's really funny is even if they can prove it's not an adverse reaction the anti-vaxers will run with this forever.<p>If you can prove anything.<p>If it's not real.<p>And absolutely this is just the beginning.<p>These things normally don't make the news. This will be all the time over the hundreds of vaccines and when they get rolled out properly there will be hundreds of stories to pick from.
I wonder what are informed positions about these vaccines potentially modifying and patenting your DNA or using aerogels (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6539078/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6539078/</a>) since these stories float around in particular for this vaccine to my understanding.<p>Are these all bs? What's the risk?