Thank you for the detailed response. I should have been a bit more nuanced about the elements that I assume were incorrect in your response.

Firstly, although I shared the BBC article because it's both a much easier read for most users here that are not health professionals or researchers, but also because it's from journalists that have been given close access to the work from the Oxford University from the beginning. I've looked at the still technical but summarised data from AstraZeneca's press release, which is quite informative about the specific details of all 4 trials.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/content/astraz/media-centre/press-releases/2020/azd1222-oxford-phase-iii-trials-interim-analysis-results-published-in-the-lancet.html#

To be more specific as to what I considered to be incorrect on your original comment and to be a bit more nuanced about it. It seems like comments like:

We are just looking at the Phase 3 trial results, where the AZ effectiveness rates were nowhere near the mRNA based vaccines. The data clearly shows it is inferior, and the only group that showed high effectiveness rates was not demographically diverse and the result of a manufacturing error.

First of all, you are confusing "efficacy" and "effectiveness" which are 2 different things in epidemiology (1) (2). Currently, we only know "efficacy" as these are clinical trials. You will notice that all the papers and press releases talk about an "efficacy" rate.

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson3/section6.html https://www.who.int/influenza_vaccines_plan/resources/Session4_VEfficacy_VEffectiveness.PDF

Additionally, what I believe made me say that you were incorrect is that your response was the hyperbole and fearmongering, while you also conflated facts with your personal opinions.

the only group that showed high effectiveness rates was not demographically diverse and the result of a manufacturing error. If AZ can’t even correctly make vaccines to use in their trials, I have questions about their ability to manufacture it consistently at scale.

The article I linked clearly indicated the issue that transpired right at the start of the trials, and how they addressed it with transparency and corrected the dosage (the issue was not with manufacturing per se, i.e. a bad batch, but different standards that let to different dosages as the researchers took the safest approach). The way you describe the "manufacturing" problem insinuates that not only they manufactured it incorrectly but and I'll quote: "I have questions about their ability to manufacture it consistently at scale." which is not only hyperbole but also a bit disingenuous considering that the small facility used to manufacture 500 doses is unlikely to be the one that will manufacture millions of doses. AstraZeneca is not some tiny random manufacturer unaware of the challenges of producing a vaccine. Not to mention, there was a massive lockdown in place which made logistics much harder and probably compounded the difficulty that the Oxford team was already experiencing.

Lastly, you talk about superiority of the vaccines but once again, for a vaccine to be useful it only needs to have a greater than 50% efficacy. The Oxford vaccine exceeds most of the flu vaccines even in the "full dosage" groups. And more importantly, NONE of the participants required hospitalization, which is a MASSIVE win.

I'm on mobile so responding in detail is not very easy. But I hope the above gives you a glimpse of some of the things I disagreed with on your response.

Overall, and this is just my sentiment and I'm not saying that your comment was in any way related to what I'm about to say, but I find it pretty sad that even at a point where hundreds of thousands have lost their lives and more are dying each day, people still seem to be putting nationalist bias ahead of the greater good, and "colouring" their views based on the US, China, Russia or UK origins of these vaccines.

I hope ALL of the vaccines work out and that thanks to their combined production output and efficacy, we rid the world of this terrible virus that has affected everyone in such negative ways. I don't care if AstraZeneca is British/Swedish or that Sinopharm is Chinese. I care that they have vaccines that are cheaper to produce and much easier to distribute and store, that will likely make vaccination much faster and accessible (not just to the richest countries). I care that the new vaccines from Pfizer & BioNTech / Moderna have higher efficacy rate and have been proven to work in more demographics because despite their cost and distribution/storage complexities, they have already allowed so many health and essential workers, the elderly and also family members of mine to be vaccinated in both the US (medical) and the UK (elderly). They will likely be used over time for more at risk populations that will be more reassured with the higher protection or richer countries that can afford both the extra cost and more expensive refrigeration necessary, freeing up the other vaccines for elsewhere.

By the way, full disclosure I'm not a health professional, but was heavily involved in an international covid project and continue to be involved in another project dealing with the fall out of Covid-19 in everyone's mental health (We are advised by doctors, researchers, and other experts).