Subscribe for free to the America First Report newsletter.
With the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine having encountered its fair share of setbacks and delays – between the German government questioning age restrictions, and other EU nations turning to offerings from Russia and China amid production delays, a new embarrassment has emerged.
Article originally published at Zero Hedge.
According to Reuters, approximately 1,500 volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial were kept in the dark after they were given “about a half dose due to a measuring mistake by Oxford researchers.” Instead of fessing up, Chief researcher, Andrew Pollard, played it off in a June 8 letter to trial subjects as ‘an opportunity for Oxford researchers to learn how well the vaccine works at different doses.’ There was no acknowledgement of the error, nor did Pollard tell the participants that the issue had been reported to British medical regulators – who then required that Oxford add another test group to the study which would receive the full dose, in line with the original plan. The dosing error was made public on December 24.
Reuters shared the letter – which it obtained from the university through a Freedom of Information request – with three different experts in medical ethics. The ethicists all said it indicates the researchers may not have been transparent with trial participants. Volunteers in clinical trials are supposed to be kept fully informed about any changes.
“They are not clear at all about what they need to be clear about – what’s going on, what they knew, the rationale for undertaking further research,” said Arthur L. Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. “It is lost in a snowstorm of verbiage.”
Steve Pritchard, a spokesman for Oxford, told Reuters: “The half-dose group was unplanned, but we did know in advance that there was a discrepancy in the dose measurements and discussed this with the regulators before dosing and when the dosing was revised.”
Pritchard also said, “We have not stated that a dosing error occurred.“
Pollard didn’t respond to a request for comment. –Reuters
The company’s assertion that no error was made is directly contradicted by documents produced by Oxford and AstraZeneca. In December, Reuters reported that a “Global Statistical Analysis Plan” by Oxford/AstraZeneca, dated Nov. 17 and later published in the scientific journal The Lancet, called the dosing discrepancy “a potency miscalculation.”
Britain’s Health Research Authority – responsible for approving medical research and ensuring it is ethical – said in a statement that changes to the study design and the letter sent to participants were approved by one of its ethics committees. (As an aside, the vaccine was recently approved for authorization in a growing number of countries, including the UK, the EU and India. The UK became the first country to approve it, and began rolling out the vaccine on Jan. 4).
Once the interim results were in following the dosing debacle, the picture got even more muddy: 90% efficacy was seen for people that received the first half dose while the rate for those who received two full doses was 62%, totally confounding researchers. Altogether, the efficacy for both groups combined was 70.4%.
One medical ethics researcher quoted by Reuters described the “mishap” as a potential breach of trust if participants and other researchers were told that the half-dose was an intended, mis-dosing, not accidental. “Presenting the dosing variation as a planned change in the study is potentially a breach of trust if in fact the dosing resulted from an error. The letter makes clear the dosing change but not the reason for the change.”
Not a good look when public acceptance of any vaccine requires the utmost confidence.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
We’re LIVE and everything is on sale for a limited time! Whole Cows has launched offering freeze-dried beef for long-term storage. Don’t wait for food shortages to get worse. Stock up today. Use promo code “launch15” at checkout for 15% off!
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
American Conservative Movement
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
[yikes-mailchimp form=”1″]
Covid variant BA.5 is spreading. It appears milder but much more contagious and evades natural immunity. Best to boost your immune system with new Z-Dtox and Z-Stack nutraceuticals from our dear friend, the late Dr. Vladimir Zelenko.