AstraZeneca data outdated
Review says month of results may be missing
Hours after COVID-19 vaccine collaborators AstraZeneca and Oxford University released data on their large clinical trial, federal officials said that information may have been missing a month’s worth of data.
The pair touted their vaccine trial results Monday in a news release and news conference, saying the two-dose shot would prevent 79% of symptomatic cases of COVID-19 and 100% of all severe cases and hospitalizations.
But a few minutes after midnight, the federal government took the unusual step of issuing a release saying the data are based on “outdated information.”
According to the statement late Monday,
an independent review board that examined the AstraZeneca-Oxford data told the government and the company “that it was concerned by information released by AstraZeneca on initial data from its COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial.”
That independent group, called the Data Safety Monitoring Board or DSMB, “expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data. We urge the company to ... ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”
Early Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the government agency that released the information, said on “Good Morning America” the company released data available only through Feb. 17, while presenting it as if it were current information.