Volunteer testing AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine dies

BATTLE FOR WORLD | October 21, 2020: The British bio-tech firm AstraZeneca, one of the candidates in the West testing a vaccine for the coronavirus COVID-19, had to pause twice their vaccine trials after two candidates in the trial suffered a rare neurological condition – the rare inflammatory disease, transverse myelitis, that affects the spinal cord, causing weakness, sensory alterations, and autonomic nervous-system dysfunction. 

In another setback for the company, AstraZeneca shares turned negative Wednesday (October 21) after the Brazilian health authority, ANVISA, said a volunteer, a Rio de Janeiro man, in its coronavirus vaccine study died.

The Federal University of Sao Paulo involved in coordinating the third-stage trials in Brazil, revealed that the volunteer was Brazilian. AstraZeneca declined to comment on the volunteer who died in the trial due to “medical confidentiality and clinical trial regulations.” But said, “all significant medical events are carefully assessed by trial investigators” and “these assessments have not led to any concerns about continuation of the ongoing study.” And that “there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial” after assessing the death case in Brazil.

As the news unfold, the Food and Drug Administration still has on hold in United States the late-stage clinical trial from AstraZeneca, where the testing site is unable to administer the second dose of its two-dose vaccine regimen to U.S. participants in the late-stage of the trial.

The Russians revealed that the vaccine by AstraZeneca is based on chimpanzee adenovirus of which has never been used to create registered vaccines. The Russians also noted that they refuse to use animal cells to produce their vaccines and instead only use human cells due to safety concern. (BattleForWorld: If the Russians are aware of this safety problem, don’t you think the know-it-alls in the West also do? Why are scientists in the West developing such risky vaccines? Because it’s cheap?)

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