Could the Halt of COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Affect Trials in Africa?

Operation Warp Speed expects that the U.S. trials of vaccines made by AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson to restart as soon as this week. The two companies developing Covid-19 vaccines backed by Operation Warp Speed temporarily halted their trials because participants fell ill, slowing down the race for a shot to halt the pandemic. J&J paused its trial last week when a participant got sick. AstraZeneca’s trial paused last month after a woman in the U.K. study developed neurological symptoms and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has yet to clear the study to resume in the U.S. Johnson & Johnson is testing its vaccine in as many as 60,000 volunteers from Peru to South Africa. U.S. regulators have not put a clinical hold on J&J’s trial. British drugmaker Astra and partner the University of Oxford last month temporarily stopped tests of its own vaccine candidate after a trial participant fell ill. While the Astra study has remained halted in the U.S., where it is being evaluated by regulators, it has resumed in a number of other countries.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA