AstraZeneca issues new Phase 3 data for COVID vaccine, confirming safety and efficacy
25 March 2021
AstraZeneca said Wednesday that a primary analysis of its Phase 3 trial data confirmed its coronavirus vaccine's "safety" with a 76% efficacy rate against symptomatic COVID.
Flashback: The company reported on Monday that a U.S. trial found its vaccine 79% effective, but faced backlash after NIAID said Tuesday it may have included information that provided an "incomplete view of the efficacy data" in its U.S. results.
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Caitlin Owens: A 3 percentage point difference in efficacy isn't much, but the public relations damage to the vaccine brought on by the last few days may be hard to undo.
By the numbers: Updated results include data from 190 symptomatic cases, 50 more than the cases studied in the dataset released Monday.
The new analysis also found:
- 100% efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalization.
- 85% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 in participants ages 65 years and up, a jump from a previously reported 80%.
What to watch: The Food and Drug Administration must go over the data AstraZeneca submits.
The big picture: AstraZeneca already faced controversy after more than a dozen countries suspended use of its vaccine in mid-March due to reports of blood clots in some people who had gotten the shot.
- A European Union agency later said there is "no indication" the vaccine causes blood clots.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.