Following the announcement that the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is being withdrawn Professor Sheena Cruickshank from the Lydia Becker Institute and Professor Christina Pagel from UCL have written a joint piece for the New Statesman about its development,  fear-mongering about its very rare side effects, and how it was one of the first and cheapest vaccines developed, saving millions of lives globally. 

Because the AZ vaccine was affordable and relatively easy to roll out at scale, it was widely used in that first crucial vaccine year of 2021, particularly in lower-income countries. Its efficacy has been widely studied and it reduced severe infections by 90 per cent. Imperial College estimated that all Covid vaccines saved about 20 million lives by the end of 2021. A further study by vaccine type estimated that the AZ vaccine in particular saved more than six million lives by the end of 2021.

 

Professor Sheena Cruickshank and Professor Christina Pagel

You can read their joint article here

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