‘Sinopharm’s jabs effective against Covid’
Vaccines from China’s Sinopharm successfully contained Covid-19, according to a study published in a US medical journal, the first time detailed findings from a late-stage trial of a Chinese shot have appeared in the scientific literature.
The two inactivated vaccines developed by Sinopharm’s vaccine-making unit China National Biotec Group Co prevented symptomatic infections by 72.8% and 78.1%, largely in-line with what the state-owned drugmaker previously announced. The findings were reported in the May 26 Journal of the American Medical Association.
The lack of transparency fuelled doubts about the shots’ ability to contain Covid. The study published in JAMA included 40,832 volunteers from across the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.
Researchers find reason for rare blood clot risk
German researchers on Wednesday said that based on laboratory research, they believed they have found the cause of the rare but serious blood clotting events among some people who received Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccines.
The researchers, in a study not yet reviewed by experts, said Covid-19 vaccines that employ adenovirus vectors - cold viruses used to deliver vaccine material - send some of their payload into the nucleus of cells, where some of the instructions for making coronavirus proteins can be misread. The resulting proteins could potentially trigger blood clot disorders in a small number of recipients, they suggest. WASHINGTON: