According to Dr. Clive Dix, the former chair of the UK Vaccine Task Force, the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford could provide lifelong protection against COVID-19.
Through an interview with The Telegraph, Clive Dix defended the vaccine and argued that so far it is one of those that provides long-lasting protection, in addition to reducing serious cases and deaths compared to others based on messenger RNA, such as Pfizer and Moderna.
He also said that he was further investigating the benefits of said vaccine and that until now they had determined its effectiveness in the case of people who had a good long-lasting cellular immunity response, so it could last a long time and that some cases could be forever.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine is very long-lasting and if you have a long-lasting cellular immune response, it can last a long time, it can last a lifetime in some cases,” Dix said.
He made a comparison of the current situation in Europe and said that regarding the increase in infections of the omicron variant on the continent, which has hit some countries hard, in the case of the United Kingdom the death figures from Covid-19 and some variants had drastically decreased, and that could be because all vulnerable people in that region had been inoculated with AstraZeneca.
“If you look at the whole of Europe, with the increase in cases, there is also a corresponding lagged increase in deaths, but not in the UK, and we have to understand that. Personally, I think that’s because most of our vulnerable people received the AstraZeneca vaccine,” said Dr. Dix.
He explained that the mRNA vaccines had been based on the virus spike protein, but AstraZeneca, Novavax and Valneva had used a more comprehensive approach.
“We know that with adenoviral vector vaccines and adjuvanted proteins you get a much broader cellular response and I think we need to look at all of that data across all vaccines,” said Dix.
Who is Clive Dix?
Dr. Clive Dix was instrumental in helping pharmaceutical companies create vaccines against Covid-19. He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has a bachelor’s and a doctorate in pharmacology.
He was CEO and founder of PowderMed Limited, bought by Pfizer in 2006; CEO and Co-Founder of Pharmaceuticals Limited, which was sold to Biogen Inc. in 2015; Chairman of the UK Bioindustry Association and joined GlaxoWellcome plc where he became UK Research Director.
How effective is the vaccine against omicron?
In a clinical study conducted by AstraZeneca, it was reported that a third dose would increase levels of antibodies to omicron and two doses were sufficient to combat the delta variant.
According to a study by the University of Oxford, and the University of Washington and St Louis University Schools of Medicine, it was determined that AstraZeneca’s Evusheld cocktail of long-acting antibodies maintains its neutralizing activity against omicron. In addition, the levels observed after a third dose were higher than the antibodies of people infected by some variant.
Sources: Tribuna de La Bahía • AstraZeneca