The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will be tested in kids as young as 6
From CNN’s Maggie Fox and Jo Shelley
An NHS staff member prepares an AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination near Truro, England, on January 26. Hugh Hastings/Getty Images
University researchers plan to start testing AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine on children as young as six in Britain on Saturday.
A team at the University of Oxford, which developed the vaccine, said it will test the vaccine on children and teens aged 6-17 there and at sites in London, Southampton and Bristol.
Few trials of coronavirus vaccine involve children as yet. In the US, Pfizer/BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines are being tested in children as young as 12.
UK confident epidemic is shrinking as R number reduces
From Samantha Tapfumaneyi
The UK is confident that the epidemic is shrinking as the Covid-19 reproduction number (R) is now between 0.7 and 1.0, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said Friday.
The R is the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to.
The growth rate in the UK is estimated to between -5% and -2% and the R number is estimated to be below 1, meaning that the number of “new infections is shrinking by between 2% to 5% every day”.
DHSC added that “it remains important that everyone continues to stay at home in order to keep the R value down, protect the NHS and help save lives”.
How Johnson & Johnson s Covid-19 vaccine compares to shots from Pfizer and Moderna Feb 17, 2021, 10:00 AM
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vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered to front-line health care workers under an emergency use authorization at a drive up vaccination site from Renown Health in Reno, Nevada on December 17, 2020.
Patrick Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson s Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective at preventing mild and moderate infections, and 85% effective at preventing severe disease.
In South Africa, it proved 100% effective against preventing such severe Covid cases that the patient ended up hospitalised or dead.
It also has the benefits of being cheap and relatively easy to manufacture and distribute. It only requires one shot in the arm.