Trials of a vaccine against coronavirus infection of the American company Johnson & Johnson will resume very soon, since the illness of one of the volunteers was not associated with vaccination. This was reported by The Washington Post on Saturday, October 24, citing two unnamed sources.
According to the newspaper, the man who received the vaccine suffered a stroke. The case was investigated by an independent committee and concluded that it was not related to the vaccine. The conclusion was drawn on the basis of the medical data associated with this case, but also data on 100 thousand people who received the vaccine based on the same basic technology.
Johnson & Johnson later confirmed that the third phase of vaccine trials would resume shortly, and preparations have already begun to reopen trials in the United States, where the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) has recommended resuming volunteer recruitment. Discussions about resuming the program in other countries are ongoing.
Earlier on October 23, it was reported that the US authorities had decided to allow the resumption of trials of the coronavirus vaccine by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, developed in conjunction with scientists from the University of Oxford.
On October 21, it became known of the death of a 28-year-old volunteer in Brazil participating in the AstraZeneca vaccine trial. According to some reports, it was indicated that the death of the volunteer doctor occurred “due to complications of COVID-19.”
The country’s national health surveillance agency, Anvisa, noted that an international committee to evaluate the safety of vaccine trials has recommended that tests continue despite the death of a participant. These plans were confirmed by the University of Oxford.