AstraZeneca shot should not be dismissed: WHO

Geneva, Feb. 9: The World Health Organisation insisted that the AstraZeneca vaccine was still a vital tool in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, after South Africa delayed the start of its inoculation program over concerns about the drug’s efficacy against a virus variant.

As concerns rose over the AstraZeneca shot, the United States said it had lost its first sitting member of Congress to the virus, 67-year-old Texas Republic Ron Wright, who had also been battling cancer.

President Joe Biden called Wright a “fighter who battled bravely against both cancer and Covid-19.” His death came after a 41-year-old Republican House member-elect lost his life to the disease in December, just days before he was to be sworn in.

In South Africa, alarm was raised when a trial at Johannesburg’s University of Witwatersrand concluded the AstraZeneca vaccine provided only “minimal” protection against mild to moderate Covid-19 caused by the variant first detected in South Africa.

That was bad news for many poorer nations counting on the logistical advantages offered by the AstraZeneca shot.

But Richard Hatchett, head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said it was “vastly too early to be dismissing this vaccine.” “It is absolutely crucial to use the tools that we have as effectively as we possibly can,” he said, speaking at the WHO’s regular biweekly press briefing on the pandemic.