As bird flu continues to spread among dairy cattle herds in nine U.S. states, the federal government is providing $200 million to help stem transmission, Reuters reported on Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also asked states to prepare for more bird flu cases. On Monday, the agency requested that states provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to dairy farm workers who might be at risk, according to an emailed statement. Previously, the CDC had asked states to gear up to test at-risk people for the virus, Reuters reported, and now the federal funding will provide each affected farm with up to $28,000 a day toward measures to slow the spread among animals and prevent transmission to humans. Health agencies will also get $101 million for continued food safety monitoring. But U.S. officials have consistently assured Americans that the risk to the general public remains low.
So far the only person to be infected is a dairy worker who contracted bird flu in Texas, where the virus has been spreading among cattle. The worker tested positive after developing pink eye, which was their only symptom, according to a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) report published on May 3. Dairy cattle herds have also been infected in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and South Dakota. Bird flu hasnt spread to any other people so far, but it has been detected in wild birds, including several geese, in New York City parks and green spaces, according to a new study, and there are renewed fears about other mammals being infected.
How concerned should you be about bird flu, and what might this mean for the food supply? Heres what you need to know.
Bird flu clinically known as influenza A (H5N1) is a variation of flu virus that spreads primarily among birds and poultry and can be highly contagious and even fatal among birds, according to the CDC. Occasionally, the virus will jump to other animals if they eat infected birds or drink water contaminated by the feces of infected birds, the CDC says. That has become more common in recent years. Viruses are constantly mutating, and the more they spread, the more they mutate. A recent family of variants may be particularly adept at infecting other animals, including cattle, according to the World Health Organization.
Its rare for the virus to infect humans, and when it does happen, its usually confined to one person who was in close contact with an infected animal and doesnt spread to others. Bird flu may cause mild to severe sickness in humans, and it has the potential to cause pneumonia and severe, sometimes fatal lung inflammation. Since 2020, there have been 26 cases in humans confirmed by the WHO, seven of which have been fatal.
The CDC continues to call for calm and considers the risk to the general public low, but, on April 5, the agency requested that state health departments begin gearing up in case additional people are infected.
So far the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed that there are 12 infected dairy cattle herds in Texas, 10 in Michigan, four in Kansas, eight in New Mexico, three in Idaho, two in Colorado and one each in North Carolina, Ohio and South Dakota. Cases in birds in New York City parks and green spaces have also been confirmed by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers.
The infected person in Texas was diagnosed after developing conjunctivitis, or pink eye. Its only the second-ever human case of bird flu in the U.S.; the first was a poultry farmworker who was infected in 2022 while culling infected birds and recovered after experiencing only mild fatigue. Eye inflammation was the only symptom the Texas dairy worker experienced; they never developed any respiratory symptoms that health officials might have expected with bird flu, according to the NEJM report.
Other dairy and poultry farmworkers are the CDC's main concern now. On May 6, the agency asked state health and agriculture departments to provide PPE to dairy farm workers at risk of contracting bird flu in an effort to prevent any additional cases, the agency said in an emailed statement. So far, the CDC has tested at least 30 people for bird flu and monitored at least 220 for symptoms. The agency has also asked state health officials to take other steps like making sure they have bird flu tests available to confirm possible infections. It also said health officials should stay in close contact with veterinarians and agriculture department officials and asked to be notified of any "challenges" states encounter.
While farmworkers are at the greatest risk because of their close and frequent proximity to potentially infected animals, the Icahn School of Medicine study authors warned that it's not impossible for city dwellers to be exposed. "Our work highlights that the interface between animals and humans that may give rise to zoonotic infections" germs that spread between animals and people "or even pandemics is not limited to rural environments and commercial poultry operations but extends into the heart of our urban centers," the researchers wrote.
For the general public, the risk remains low, the CDC says. Bird flu has never been very good at spreading from person to person, so its unlikely to become widespread. The virus would have to mutate in some specific, key ways to make that possible. The good news is that it hasnt, according to preliminary testing of a sample of virus from the infected person, who has only mild symptoms.
After particles of the bird flu virus were discovered in about 1 in 5 samples of grocery store milk, further Food and Drug Administration testing has confirmed that the virus was inactivated by pasteurization, a sterilizing process used on more than 99% of the commercial milk supply. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also tested ground beef for bird flu, and all the samples came back negative.
Bird flu has also been found in unpasteurized milk, but you shouldnt consume unpasteurized milk or cheese regardless, the CDC warns, because they carry risk of infections like listeria. The CDC also says that the risk of being infected from eating eggs is low, and properly cooking them would kill any virus anyway.
Farms are prohibited from selling products including milk and eggs from sick animals, so its unlikely that contaminated food would wind up on grocery store shelves. The most likely impact of the bird flu outbreak in animals on the food supply is rising prices. Egg prices have shot up as chickens have been culled or died, limiting the supply of eggs. Milk prices could see increases but are stable so far.
On April 15, Colombia became the first country to restrict the importation of beef and beef products from U.S. states with infected herds, Reuters reported.
Two candidate vaccines drafts of what would become the shots seem to be good matches for the current strain of bird flu, the Washington Post reports. The federal government has a stockpile of enough doses to vaccinate a fifth of the American population, officials told Barron's. However, the vaccines are undergoing clinical testing, so it's unclear how effective they will be. Antiviral drugs can also be used to treat bird flu, although the CDC says that some variations of bird flu first found in Asia arent as responsive to these treatments.
Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Michigan and member of the FDAs vaccine committee, tells Yahoo Life that the U.S.s bird flu vaccines require adjuvants, ingredients that improve humans immune responses. An official with the Department of Health and Human Services also told the Washington Post that components for the vaccines are being tested, and it would likely take weeks to months for them to be ready for widespread distribution. Monto adds that the vaccine would also likely be given to only those at high risk poultry and dairy farmworkers since theres no evidence that bird flu spreads among humans.
Avoid close or prolonged contact with wild birds, cattle or any other animal suspected of being infected. The CDC also recommends steering clear of surfaces that may be contaminated with raw milk, animal feces, litter or anything else that might have crossed paths with an infected animal.
Cooking poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165F will kill off any virus. It's also recommended for milk drinkers to consume only pasteurized milk to prevent contracting bird flu or other viruses or bacteria from raw foods, and to avoid raw or undercooked foods sourced from animals that may be infected with bird flu.
This article was originally published on April 4, 2024. It has since been updated.
We dont yet know if H5N1 bird flu will spill over from animals to infect a large number of humans. Based on the few cases of transmission so far, the World Health Organization has expressed concerns that infection in humans can cause severe disease with a high mortality rate.
But already it has wrought devastation upon so many lives. The deaths of millions of birds and mammals around the globe in the last few years directly and indirectly from this outbreak should be enough to spur urgent action to stop the spread of the virus, as well as remind us of the role humans play in the proliferation of infectious diseases.
Its my belief that humans have an obligation to the nonhuman life we share this planet with to mitigate the harm weve enabled this virus to cause. Our unsustainable activities factory farming, climate-warming emissions and habitat destruction, to name a few have helped turn bird flu from a natural phenomenon into an anthropogenic disaster. But even if you dont share that conviction, it is still in our best interest to keep this virus from spreading.
Disease has always been part of avian natural history. Wild birds are routinely exposed to mild viruses, but are seldom killed by them. Humans, however, have introduced factors that favor disease: A warming climate can weaken avian immune systems, and infections spread more easily when birds come into more frequent contact while sharing what little habitat remains.
And factory farming makes things even worse. When farm animals are kept in large numbers and close quarters in poultry and dairy farms, viruses can spread and mutate more easily. Its a human-facilitated training ground for diseases. The progenitor of todays H5N1 strain, for example, emerged in 1996 when a virus infecting farmed geese in Guangdong Province in southern China spilled back into wild populations.
Maintaining the health of their animal holdings and their businesses not to mention the potential risk to farm workers and the ever-present threat of human spillover requires farmers to act quickly. And when bird flu hits farms, often the only real way to contain it is the precautionary culling of entire flocks, which has resulted in tens of millions of dead hens since 2022. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends that farms use killing methods that avoid suffering. But as many as 66 million chickens and turkeys have been culled with a technique that animal welfare groups call unnecessarily cruel: ventilation shutdown, which kills over several hours through overheating.
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U.S. health and agriculture officials pledged nearly $200 million in new spending and other efforts Friday to help track and contain an outbreak of bird flu in the nations dairy cows that has spread to more than 40 herds in nine states.
The new funds include $101 million to continue work to prevent, test, track and treat animals and humans potentially affected by the virus known as Type A H5N1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said. And they include about $98 million to provide up to $28,000 each to help individual farms test cattle and bolster biosecurity efforts to halt the spread of the virus, according to the Agriculture Department.
In addition, dairy farmers will be compensated for the loss of milk production from infected cattle, whose supply drops dramatically when they become sick, officials said. And dairy farmers and farm workers would be paid to participate in a workplace study conducted by the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So far, farmers have been reluctant to allow health officials onto their farms to test cattle because of uncertainty about how it would affect their businesses, researchers have said. Also, farm workers, including many migrant workers, have been reluctant to be tested for fear of missing work or because they didnt want to be tracked by the government.
The National Milk Producers Federation, a trade group representing dairy farmers, said they welcomed the new resources. Care for farm workers and animals is critical for milk producers, as is protecting against potential human health risks and reassuring the public, the group said in a statement.
The incentives should help increase farmers willingness to test their herds, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, who has been monitoring the outbreak.
It provides the latitude and capacity to start going in the right direction, he said.
The new spending comes more than six weeks after the first-ever detection of an avian bird flu virus in dairy cattle and one confirmed infection in a Texas dairy worker exposed to infected cows who developed a mild eye infection and then recovered. About 33 people have been tested and another 260 are being monitored, according to the CDC.
As of Friday, 42 herds in nine states have confirmed infections in dairy cows. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that the outbreak has not spread more widely.
Its still in the same nine states and thats the most positive thing about where we are, he told reporters.
Samples of grocery store milk tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed remnants of the virus in about 1 in 5 samples of retail milk nationwide, however, suggesting that the outbreak could be more widespread, scientists have said.
Under a federal order issued last month, farmers are required to test lactating dairy cattle for H5N1 before the animals are moved between states. The Agriculture Department said Friday that 112 out of 905 tests conducted between April 29 and May 5 by federal animal health laboratories appeared to be positive. Officials could not say how many cows tested positive because multiple samples may have been collected from a single cow. Labs are conducting about 80 more tests per day than before the order took effect, an Agriculture Department spokesman said.
About 50,000 dairy cattle typically cross state lines every week, Poulsen estimates.
The FDA found that pasteurization, or heat-treating, killed the virus in the grocery samples of milk, cottage cheese and sour cream. The agency reiterated warnings that people should not consume raw, or unpasteurized milk, because of possible risk from the virus. Officials on Friday also said they expect results soon from tests of pooled raw milk samples sent to commercial processors to determine potential levels of virus that pasteurization must eliminate. The USDA found no evidence of the virus in a small sample of retail ground beef.
The risk to the public from this outbreak remains low, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said.
AstraZeneca developed the first vaccine for COVID-19, beating the competition, but this week theyve announced theyre withdrawing the jab worldwide following a drop in demand.
More than 3 billion doses of the vaccine, called Vaxzevria, have been administered globally, and AstraZeneca said it is incredibly proud of it.
Vaxzevria was developed in conjunction with scientists at the University of Oxford, UK, who stunned the world by producing a vaccine in just 10 months, a process that would generally take a decade The team was awarded the worlds oldest prize in science, the Copley Medal, by the UKs Royal Society in recognition of their achievements in 2022.
Experts contacted by the UK Science Media Centre (SMC) said that, while the vaccine was dogged by rare but serious side effects, not to mention more than its fair share of misinformation, its important to remember that its rapid development saved millions of lives.
We seem to forget how desperate the global population was for an effective COVID-19 vaccine, Professor Jonathan Ball, Deputy Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, told the UK SMC.
And Adam Finn, Professor of Paediatrics at the UKs University of Bristol, said the speed of development and low cost of the vaccine meant it could be used in many of the poorer countries in the world.
Dr Michael Head, a Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton, UK, said the vaccine played a vital role in tackling the emerging Delta variant of COVID-19 in India, which he described as a humanitarian crisis.
India was the main producer of the AstraZeneca vaccine at that time, amid global shortages and very high COVID-19 burdens. It will have saved so many lives in India alone across 2021 and 2022.
The vaccine cost only US$4-8 a shot, compared with between US$20 and US$30 per shot for the mRNA vaccines later developed by Pfizer and Moderna, added Peter Openshaw, a Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London.
And those mRNA vaccines needed a full cold chain, making them unavailable in resource-poor setting, he added.
But, the lives saved have to be balanced against the rare but potentially serious side effects, specifically vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) that were reported in about one in 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccine recipients, he acknowledged.
However, its not just the side effects that have killed off the vaccine, said Finn: Global demand for all COVID-19 vaccines is now much lower and overall supply exceeds demand.
And the AstraZeneca vaccine has not kept up with changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus as new variants have emerged, he added.
[It] expresses the original Wuhan Spike protein, and has not been updated, [so] is probably now much less effective than it was to begin with because the Spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 variants now circulating has changed a good deal over time as the virus has evolved.
Meanwhile, other vaccines, particularly those capable of giving protection against newly emerging variants of concern have come to the fore, says Ball.
That means there is probably no commercial case for continuing to manufacture and distribute the vaccine. I think this is likely to be the main reason the company has decided to discontinue making and selling it, concluded Finn.
You can read the UK EXPERT REACTION in full here
First published in Science Deadline, the weekly newsletter of the Australian Science Media Centre.
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Heart failure patients who are vaccinated against COVID-19 have an 82% greater likelihood of living longer than those who are not vaccinated, according to research presented at Heart Failure 2024, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), held 1114 May in Lisbon, Portugal. Heart Failure is a life-threatening syndrome affecting more than 64 million people worldwide.
"Patients with heart failure should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect their health," said study author Dr. Kyeong-Hyeon Chun of the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Republic of Korea.
"In this large study of patients with heart failure, COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a lower likelihood of contracting the infection, being admitted to hospital because of heart failure, or dying from any cause during a six-month period compared with remaining unvaccinated."
Previous studies have shown the safety of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with cardiovascular diseases including heart failure, and that COVID-19 outcomes are worse in patients with heart failure compared to those without heart failure. However, there has been little research on how vaccines work specifically in patients with heart failure. This nationwide, retrospective study examined the prognosis of heart failure patients according to COVID-19 vaccination status.
This study used the Korean National Health Insurance Service database, which covers nearly all residents of the Republic of Korea, to obtain information on vaccinations and clinical outcomes. Participants who received two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccine were defined as "vaccinated," and those who were not vaccinated or had received just one dose were defined as "unvaccinated."
The study included 651,127 patients aged 18 years or older with heart failure. The average age was 69.5 years and 50% were women. Of the total study population, 538,434 (83%) were defined as vaccinated and 112,693 (17%) as unvaccinated.
To control for factors that could influence the relationship between vaccination status and outcomes, the researchers performed 1:1 matching of vaccinated and unvaccinated patients according to age, sex, other health conditions (e.g. high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc.), income, and region of residence. This resulted in 73,559 vaccinated patients and 73,559 unvaccinated patients for the comparative analyses.
The median follow-up was six months. Vaccination was associated with an 82% lower risk of all-cause mortality, 47% lower risk of hospitalization for heart failure, and 13% reduced risk of COVID-19 infection compared with no vaccination. Regarding cardiovascular complications, vaccination was associated with significantly lower risks of stroke, heart attack, myocarditis/pericarditis, and venous thromboembolism compared to no vaccination.
Dr. Chun said, "This was the first analysis of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in a large population of heart failure patients, and the first to show a clear benefit from vaccination. The study provides strong evidence to support vaccination in patients with heart failure. However, this evidence may not be applicable to all patients with heart failure, and the risks of vaccination should be considered in patients with unstable conditions."
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has initiated a global withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine just months after it admitted it could cause a rare side effect.
The news sparked speculation on social media that the vaccine was being withdrawn because of concerns about associated health risks.
Read more: Compare Top Health Savings Accounts
However, the British-Swedish company said that the decision was made purely for commercial reasons after a decline in demand because of a "surplus of available updated vaccines."
"As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied," the company said in a statement, according to The Telegraph, which first reported the news. AstraZeneca changed the name of its COVID vaccine to Vaxzevria in 2021.
Despite media reports and social media speculation, AstraZeneca has withdrawn the vaccine, but not recalled it.
A recall, which would mean the medication was removed from shelves, typically takes place when there are safety concerns, defects, or regulatory issues posing risks to public health. A withdrawal means that the vaccine is no longer being actively manufactured or supplied by the company.
AstraZeneca noted that independent estimates say that over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of the vaccine's use and that over three billion doses were supplied globally.
The company said it had withdrawn its marketing authorizations for the vaccine in the European Union on March 5, which came into effect on May 7.
AstraZeneca will make similar applications in the coming months in the U.K. and other countries that had approved the use of the vaccine, the Telegraph reported. The vaccine was never approved for use in the United States.
Other countries have already stopped using the vaccine; it has not been available in Australia since March 2023.
Newsweek reached out to AstraZeneca for comment via email.
The withdrawal comes as the company faces a class-action lawsuit in the U.K. over allegations of side effects associated with the vaccine.
The company is contesting the claims, but admitted in a February legal document that its COVID vaccine "can, in very rare cases, cause TTS," according to the Telegraph.
TTS, or Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, is a rare side effect linked to certain COVID-19 vaccines, which can manifest in the form of blood clots and a low blood platelet count.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was the first to be rolled out in the U.K. in early 2021.
However, the government reduced its use of the vaccine after emerging reports about the rare risk of blood clots and replaced it with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Sarah Moore, a partner at law firm Leigh Day, which is bringing the legal claims against AstraZeneca, said that the withdrawal will come as welcome news to those who have suffered side effects.
"It will be seen as a decision linked with AstraZeneca's recent admission that the vaccine can cause TTS, and the fact that regulators across the world suspended or stopped usage of the vaccine following concerns regarding TTS," she told the Telegraph.
"This is an important regulatory step, but still our clients remain without fair compensation," she said. "We will continue to fight for the compensation our clients need and campaign for reform of the vaccine damage payment scheme."
Professor Catherine Bennett, the chair of epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, told The Guardian that it was important to note that the vaccine played a crucial role in the early days of the pandemic.
"It has saved millions of lives and that should not be forgotten," she said. "It was a really important part of the initial global response. However, it targeted the initial ancestral variants. We've now moved into a vaccine chain where we have products available that are chasing the variants that are emerging."
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
AstraZeneca's withdrawal of its vaccine has left many asking questions. Reuters
Its been another week of big developments.
AstraZeneca in a shocking move announced it was withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine from across the world.
This, just weeks after admitting its jab caused a rare side effect.
Meanwhile, in the US, Indian students are seemingly staying away from campus protests in Columbia.
Closer to home, the Maldives is begging Indian tourists to return after a significant drop in travellers to the archipelago.
China is on a gold buying spree and inflating the pricing of the precious metal.
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All this and more in our weekly roundup of explainers from the world.
1. The headline alone, AstraZeneca withdraws COVID vaccine, was eye catching.
That the news came just week after the company said its jab caused a rare side effect left many second guessing the decision to take the vaccine.
But do you really need to worry?
Is your country one of those that used AstraZenecas jab?
And why did the company withdraw the vaccine?
2. Campuses in the US remain in an uproar.
Students have set up encampments, teachers have joined in, in-person classes have been cancelled and university bosses have been summoned before the US House to testify about anti-semitism on campuses.
However, Indian students, the second-largest group of international scholars in the US, seem to have little to no presence among the demonstrations.
But why is that? Are Indian students concerned about somehow being swept up in the tumult? And if so, what are they worried about?
This article gives you an up close look.
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3. Indians come back.
That was the message this week from the Maldives tourism minister.
The island nation has seen its flow of Indian tourists slow immensely after a boycott following three government ministers making derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But what did Ibrahim Faisal say?
How many Indian tourists actually visited Maldives?
And what has been the fallout of the boycott?
Click here to know more.
4. For the past few years, China has been having a love affair with gold.
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Not only is the country the worlds largest producer of gold, it is also the biggest consumer.
And it is powering the yellow metal to brand new highs.
While gold was the provenance of middle-aged women, experts say thats no more the case and many customers are now in their 20s.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Bank of China (PBC) is also increasing its exposure to gold.
But whats behind this affinity? And where does gold go from here?
5. Supporters of Donald Trump are taking their devotion to a new level.
Admirers of the former president are turning up to rallies in nappies.
Thats not all they are also wearing T-shirts that say Real men wear diapers.
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But what prompted this bizarre turn of events amid Trumps hush money trial in New York?
6. Over the years, Japan has made headlines for its somewhat strange attitude towards sex and romance.
Now, the youth are pioneering a new trend marriage without sex and love.
This so-called friendship marriage is replacing the more traditional union.
So what is it all about? How does it work? How many people are taking it to heart?
This piece gives you an insight into the latest trend in Japan.
7. For many people, a nice cold beer at the end of a long workday is just the ticket.
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But have you ever considered why that is the case?
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say there is actually a science behind what makes a child pint taste so good.
So why do we like cold beer? And what possible impact could this research have in real life?
You are all caught up on world affairs for this week. If you want to read and support more of our work, you can bookmark this page .
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Considering reduced global demand for COVID vaccines, AstraZeneca has deemed there is no long-term value in investing in manufacturing the adenovirus-based vaccine.
Withdrawal of the marketing authorisation for the COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) Vaxzevria (SRD) by the European Medicines Agency on 7 May, follows a request by AstraZeneca.
Global demand for all COVID vaccines is now much lower and overall supply exceeds demand. This is in marked contrast to the early part of the pandemic when supply was limited and distribution very limited, especially in poorer countries.
there is probably no commercial case for continuing to manufacture and distribute the vaccine and I think this is likely to be the main reason the company have decided to discontinue making and selling it
Accordingly, there is probably no commercial case for continuing to manufacture and distribute the vaccine and I think this is likely to be the main reason the company have decided to discontinue making and selling it. [The treatment] saved very large numbers of lives in many countries around the world particularly in 2021 and 2022, both because it was developed and tested so rapidly and because AstraZeneca made it available at very low cost so that it could be used in many of the poorer countries in the world, Professor Adam Finn, Professor of Paediatrics, University of Bristol shared.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca adenovirus-based vaccine was designed for rapid global deployment and was the least expensive of all the [options] that were available in the early stages of the pandemic, coming in at only $4-8 dollars a shot. This meant that it had a huge global reach, 100 million doses being commissioned by the UK Vaccine Taskforce in July 2020. This overshadowed the mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (90 and 17 million doses respectively at that time). The mRNA vaccines cost between $20 and $30 per shot and needed a full cold chain, making them unavailable in resource-poor setting. In the face of alternative vaccines that can be rapidly updated the decision to cease issuing this type of vaccine is logical, Professor Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine, Imperial College London explained.
In the companys other recent developments, earlier this month AstraZeneca released promising data for a novel BTK inhibitor indicated to treat mantle cell lymphoma.
AstraZeneca is withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine from worldwide circulation and marketing authorizations.
The British-Swedish company recently acknowledged side effects such as blood clots and low platelet counts in court papers, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.
But AstraZeneca said in a statement that the slipping COVID-19 market has become saturated with newer vaccines, hurting Vaxzevrias sales.
As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines, the company said. Vaxzevria is no longer being manufactured or supplied, Reuters reported.
The multinational companys application to withdraw Vaxzevria was made March 5 and took effect Tuesday, according to the first reports on the matter from the Telegraph.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
Coronavirus
Although dogged by controversy, the firms coronavirus jab saved the lives of millions and helped avert humanitarian crises in nations unable to access costly alternatives
Sat 11 May 2024 10.29 EDT
Last weeks announcement that AstraZeneca would no longer market its Covid vaccine brings an end to one of the centurys most remarkable medical stories. Created within a year of the arrival of the pandemic, the AZ vaccine was cheap, easily stored and transported, and helped stave off humanitarian crises in Asia and Latin America, where many countries could not afford the more expensive mRNA vaccines that were being snapped up by rich western nations. It is estimated that it saved 6.3 million lives in 2021 alone.
Yet from the start the vaccine created by research teams led by Professor Andy Pollard and Professor Sarah Gilbert at the Oxford Vaccine Centre was dogged by controversy. It was linked to blood clots, US observers criticised protocols for its trials, and French president Emmanuel Macron claimed it was quasi-ineffective for people over 65. In fact, the vaccine is particularly effective for the elderly.
In very rare cases, the AZ vaccine can cause blood clots. According to the British Heart Foundation, one study in the BMJ showed that for every 10 million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca there would be a total of 73 extra cases of blood clots. By contrast 10 million Covid cases would trigger thousands of extra blood clot cases.
Many of the anxieties about the vaccine stemmed from national self-interests. However, others derive from the nature of vaccines themselves, and this raises issues that are likely to re-emerge with the arrival of any new pandemic in coming years, scientists have warned.
A vaccine is unlike any other type of medicine because it works by stimulating a persons anti-pathogen defences, arming them in advance of a future infection. However, this preparation goes beyond helping one individual and can aid the general population, a point stressed by Professor Stephen Evans, of the London School of Medicine and Tropical Hygiene.
If I take a preventative drug such as a statin then I am the only one who benefits, said Evans. However, there are people who cannot mount responses to a vaccine because they are ill or have a weakened immune system. They remain vulnerable. However, if you can build up herd immunity by ensuring the maximum number of people are inoculated, virus levels will drop and the vulnerable will be protected. If we believe we have responsibilities to help others, being vaccinated achieves that. There are moral concerns about being inoculated, in other words.
Convincing the public which has witnessed a rise in anti-vax propaganda in recent years of this may not be easy. In addition, there is a second crucial difference between standard medical treatments and vaccines, added Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, of the University of Cambridge. We never know the identities of those who benefit [from a vaccine] they are statistical people while those who are harmed can be named and their stories told.
AstraZenecas Covid vaccine provides an example. We only know those who were harmed by it but cannot pinpoint those who benefited. Again, this makes it trickier to pinpoint a vaccines success and assure people of its efficacy. To a certain extent, you can get round this and assess the impact of Covid vaccines by looking at the deaths of frontline workers in the health service during the pandemics early days, added Evans. Hundreds died, but if we had had a vaccine then it is now clear most would probably have survived.
Most virologists and vaccine experts agree: when you look at the AstraZeneca vaccine from a global perspective, it probably benefited tens of millions of people, preventing deaths and reducing long-term consequences of Covid. It was a remarkable success, yet its passing has been marked by many who stressed its side-effects but never touched on its achievements.
The paradox of vaccines is that people forget how important they are, said Professor Adam Finn, of Bristol University. They are like democracy. You enjoy it for a while and then forget how important it is to preserve it. Its a problem.
On the other hand, it is also clear politicians and officials will have to be careful about the claims they make, added Fiona Fox, head of the Science Media Centre. Public trust in vaccines will come from open and honest communication. The benefits massively outweigh the risks as they did with this vaccine.
But you wont win any arguments by claiming that vaccines are 100% safe or running for the hills at the first reports of problems, which unfortunately too many government and NHS communications officers tend to do.
Downplaying risks is always tempting when you need people to take a mostly safe vaccine but its ultimately self-defeating because it erodes trust in the longer term.
Robin McKie and science and environment editor for the Observer
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