Health officials at the AstraZeneca firm have been accused of leaving volunteers in limbo after being administered the wrong dosage. The firm refuses to tell them they have been given half dosage and what happens next.
AstraZeneca administers the wrong dosage to volunteers
About 1,600 of the first volunteers in phase three clinical trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine have been given the wrong dose, but they were not notified about the error even health officials discovered the error. Instead, the error was shown and kept a secret until the recent discovery.
Also, the chief medical investigator, Professor Andrew Poland sent a letter to the volunteers, which neither mentioned the error nor told them about it. However, health regulators are aware and instructed them to get another test group and give them full dosage. There isn’t any information about if the volunteers run the risk of adverse effects because of these errors.
A lot is expected from the AstraZeneca vaccine which has been distributed across Britain and has been seen as a potential arsenal against the pandemic. The vaccine has been heavily criticized because of this error in its trial, and lack of information about its potency in aged individuals who are more vulnerable.
Conflicting statements from AstraZeneca officials
Steve Prichard told media reporters:
‘The incident was unfortunate, however, we have taking note of these mistakes and working hard so that it won’t be repeated, We have not documented that an error occurred.’
A spokesperson for AstraZeneca has refused to comment when asked about the contradictions between Polland’s statement and documents sent to researchers.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was recently approved for emergency use in several countries which include the UK, EU, and India. The UK has been administering the vaccine since its approval on January 5. However, the issues surrounding the clinical trials have created apprehension and the German vaccine agency has directed that only citizens aged 60 and below should be given a jab.
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