US health experts confused after China releases results from COVID-19 vaccine

4years ago

US news, US news.

It has been announced that, on Friday, researchers in China reported results from one of the first COVID-19 vaccine trials. However, US health experts were skeptical of their findings and called the data lukewarm.

In a study published in the medical journal The Lancet, researchers said their vaccine was well-tolerated and generated an immune response against the novel coronavirus.

The vaccine was developed by CanSino Biological Inc. and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and tested in 108 healthy, uninfected adults aged 18 to 60 in Wuhan, China, the original ground zero of the pandemic.

Researchers said that all the participants received injections at low, middle, or high doses, and no "serious" side effects were reported.

Half of those who got the vaccine reported fever, with 44% reporting fatigue and 39% reporting a headache. Overall, 9% of patients reported side effects that were severe enough to have potentially prevented activity.

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said that these side effects are "not a good safety sign."

Experts also suggested the vaccine did not elicit a strong immune response; all the doses, even the "low" dose, were actually very high, Offit said.