REVIEW: AstraZeneca vaccine provides 91% protection from hospitalisation, and death irrespective of age

Vaccination of two doses of AstraZeneca will provide high changes against death or hospitalisation by covid, an expert review on real-world vaccine effectiveness has stated.

The expert review of data from 79 real-world studies showed that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and the available mRNA COVID-19 vaccines provide equally effective protection against hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 following two doses.

The study shows that the AstraZeneca vaccine is most likely to offer a 91-93% degree of protection against hospitalisation and death, regardless of age.

“The data available at the time of review relates to the Delta SARS-Cov-2 and earlier variants, although emerging data on third dose boosting from the UK Health Security Agency and Brazil indicates similar findings on serious COVID-19 outcomes resulting from the Omicron variant,” the report reads.

Previous reports had indicated the vaccine could not efficiently protect people from illness or prevent the virus with the EU insisting that not all vaccines are equal.

However, Professor Guy Thwaites, Director of the Oxford Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam says that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and available mRNA vaccines provide similar, high-level protection against life-threatening COVID-19.

“COVID-19 vaccines have been critical to helping save lives and return the world to some normalcy over the past year. This is important information for policymakers as they consider the optimal deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in their populations over the next 12 months, ” he says.

John L. Perez, Senior Vice President, Head of Late Development Vaccines & Immune Therapies Unit, AstraZeneca said: “Real-world data offer crucial insights into the effectiveness of vaccines, including the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. We are pleased that these data continue to show high levels of protection against severe clinical outcomes and further our understanding of the important role that vaccination plays in the containment of COVID-19.”

AstraZeneca and its global partners have released over three billion vaccine doses to more than 180 countries, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low- and lower-middle-income countries. Based on model outcomes the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is estimated to have helped save over 6 million lives between 08 December 2020 and 08 December 2021.

Uganda, one of the beneficiaries of the AstraZeneca vaccine confirms that the vaccine is safe and effective.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Health in March, the government maintained that despite the minor side effects, the vaccine was indeed very effective.

"The ministry of health and WHO would like to reassure the public that the AstraZeneca vaccine which we are administering is safe and effective against COVID-19," the statement said.