SA scientists plan AstraZeneca trial to assess effect on severe disease

The government’s top Covid-19 vaccine advisers met on Thursday to discuss launching a clinical trial of AstraZeneca’s shot, designed to answer key questions about the extent to which the jab protects people from severe disease caused by the new variant dominating transmission in SA.

“The advice under serious discussion is the idea of rolling out a study to 100,000 [volunteers] so we can look at the impact on hospitalisation,” said Helen Rees, executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute and a member of health minister Zweli Mkhize’s advisory committee on Covid-19 vaccines...