AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is 79% effective: U.S. study
Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani, Julie Hyman and Myles Udland discuss the latest AstraZeneca vaccine updates and states reopening.
Video Transcript
MYLES UDLAND: We'll begin this morning with news on the coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca, out with results showing that it's COVID-19 vaccine is 79% effective with no increased risk of blood clotting. Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani joins us now with the latest. On these results, Anjalee, and I think we've talked a lot about AstraZeneca vaccine over the last couple of weeks, what does today's news mean for the vaccine in general and for it to be distributed here in the US?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, it definitely gets us one step closer to having that vaccine available here in the US and also really signals stronger safety to any of the concerns from last week. We saw that the vaccine was 79% efficacious across the board in its trial. That included a couple of different countries in North and South America. And that was in a pool of 32,000 people.
And so, as you can see, it lines up a little bit because of the way that it was done. The US breakout is not yet available, so it kind of falls in the same category as Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, which had sort of global data to look at their numbers. But meanwhile, we know that they are looking at filing within the next few weeks for that emergency use authorization, already submitting the data and starting to. They already have the previous trials' data with the FDA to kind of start that process.
But we know that because of the, you know, commotion in the last week, especially with all the concerns coming out of Europe since the start of the year, first with the issues and concerns about the elderly population, as well as safety concerns that came up last week and were addressed, specifically addressing that, we had NIAID, the institution that Dr. Anthony Fauci leads, releasing a statement today on the data saying specifically that there was no increased risk of blood clots.
And the company also noting the same, adding as well that 80% efficacy. So just slightly over the general population in 65 and older. There you go. You have that information from NIAID saying that the events that were seen in Europe, there was no increased risk, based on the Data Safety Monitoring Board observing the clinical data. So we don't have the actual data itself. This is just that press release, that initial sort of run of information.
We also did learn from a conversation with media and officials just now that one of the concerns is going to be how to increase the product that they can get delivered out there, specifically looking at about 30 million doses ready to be sent off as soon as an EUA is confirmed, along with 20 million additional doses after that, and then about 15 to 20 million monthly average production after that for the US.
JULIE HYMAN: And, Anjalee, as we look at these various vaccine rollouts and this approval, we're also looking at reopening across the United States. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy just saying a little while ago, he's going to sort of pause the reopening here because of an increased case count. Meanwhile, in Miami, we're all looking at sort of wild footage of spring-breakers down there, as the mayor there is imposing restrictions. What do we know about how many people are there and what we're seeing in terms of case count there also?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, we know that the large crowds are because of spring-breakers flooding to the area. There were definitely some concerns about the way that this curfew, this 8:00 PM curfew, was put in place with some scenes of police getting very aggressive. And that's something that, especially because of the number of people that were of color in the area, that really is creating a lot of tension for the area. But we know that that has been something that has been a concern around the country. The idea that not just spring-breakers, but just people in general getting back on planes, getting back to traveling. We've seen increased TSA numbers as well.
All are concerning as states start to reopen because of increased vaccinations. But experts have been warning that with the variants in play, especially that UK one, B117, which is so highly transmissible, it's really a concern about how quickly this virus can continue to spread. And it's causing a lot of issues for states to be able to control capacity and really put into place sort of an in between of reopening the economy as well as staying concerned and staying distant and safe.
