AstraZeneca Data Hint at Halting Severe Covid, Slaoui Says

  • 16 trial volunteers who received placebo got severe disease
  • None of the participants who received shot were hospitalized
WATCH: A larger study of the Oxford-Astra vaccine is needed, according to WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan.(Source: Bloomberg)
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The leader of the U.S. government’s coronavirus vaccine program said AstraZeneca Plc found that 16 participants who received a placebo in its clinical trial contracted severe Covid-19, a sign that the shot could block the worst cases of disease.

The British drugmaker and its partner, the University of Oxford, said earlier Monday that none of the trial participants who received the vaccine had become severely ill, and that none of the patients in that group were hospitalized.