AstraZeneca vaccine now said to be 76% effective

Company says data will be submitted to peer-reviewed journal and FDA in "the coming weeks"

AstraZeneca released revised data on its Phase 3 clinical study of its COVID-19 vaccine, responding to questions raised by the independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB.) The new analysis shows an overall 76% efficacy rate, down slightly from the 79% reported earlier, and the finding that the vaccine was 100% effective at preventing severe disease or death was unchanged. The DSMB questioned whether the company had improperly omitted some cases from the data set.

• NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said the DSMB concern was expressed publicly to amend the public record, since NIH had issued a news release with the earlier, inaccurate data.

• Pfizer started testing its COVID-19 vaccine in children.

White House announces new funding for expanded vaccination availability and public health capacity: The Biden administration is providing $6 billion to fund community health centers, which primarily serve minority and marginalized communities and $330 million to support community health workers, including training.

• The CDC will begin providing vaccine supplies directly to dialysis clinics so that both patients and personnel in dialysis clinics can be vaccinated against COVID-19. Dialysis patients include large numbers of Blacks and Hispanics, and people on dialysis who get COVID-19 have about a 20-30% death rate.

• Opening up to Tier 1c: Frontline essential workers and anyone 16 or older with an underlying health condition soon can get their COVID-19 vaccinations at a federally qualified health center.

  • Florida is opening up vaccinations to anyone 40 or older on April 1; California opens to 50 and older that day, and several other states are opening vaccinations to all. Alaska, Mississippi, Utah and West Virginia have allowed anyone to get the shots already.

Mississipi’s health department has revised its vaccine information call center script so that operators will no longer tell callers that there is “no documentation” that COVID-19 vaccines are effective. That part was only applicable to those who are pregnant, lactating or immunocompromised, but a health department official acknowledged that the language was outdated and using it was a “mistake.”

Brazil now is the second nation to record more than 300,000 COVID-19 deaths. The USA now has tallied 546,058 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

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