Due to a single event of an unexplained illness, the AstraZeneca Oxford group have announced a voluntary pause on all vaccinations across all sites of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trial. This pause will allow an independent committee to review the safety data and investigate the incident.
The following article, published in The Conversation, outlines how this halt doesn’t necessarily indicate that the vaccine is not safe, but reflects the robust processes for clinical trials. It is important to recognise that whilst these clinical trials are moving at pandemic speed, safety is not being compromised.