Why is Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine Looking Like India’s Best Shot for COVID?

Even as India battles a big spike in COVID cases, forcing some states to reimpose certain restrictions on people's movements, the good news is that vaccine developers are inching towards success in a rapid pace.

Recently, the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and Swedish-British pharma AstraZeneca was announced to be 70 percent effective after a large-scale trial. This of course comes on the heels of a string of announcements from other research groups:

Pfizer's announcement from 9 November, of the interim results of its candidate vaccine proving to be more than 90 percent effective (which they later revised to 95 percent),

Russia's announcement that came on 11 November, on Sputnik V showing 92 percent efficacy in late-stage trials,

And Moderna's announcement from 16 November about its candidate's 94.5 percent efficacy.

And not to mention India's very own candidate — COVAXIN being developed by Bharat Biotech, who on 23 November said that the vaccine is expected to be 60 percent efficacious.

What do these different levels of efficacy mean for us in this vaccine race? Why is the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine looking like India's best shot? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha Guests: Dr Shahid Jameel, Virologist and Director, Trivedi School of Biosciences at Ashoka University Interview: Vaishali Sood, Editor, Quint Fit

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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