PARTLY FALSE: Oxford University’s trial COVID-19 vaccine is not ready for worldwide distribution
An article published by the Kenyan Daily Post claiming that a cure for COVID-19 has been found, and that 400 million doses have been set aside for distribution worldwide is PARTLY FALSE.
While it is true that 400 million doses of the AZD1222 trial COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed by AstraZeneca, the distribution will be restricted to European member states, not worldwide as suggested in the headline.
The article headline is also misleading in its reference to a COVID-19 cure instead of a vaccine. The AZD1222 trial vaccine was previously known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 when it was under development at the University of Oxford.
While this headline is incorrect, the body of the article accurately relays news that British-based drug maker, AstraZeneca, and the University of Oxford announced an agreement for the global development and distribution of a vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
The article explains that the recombinant adenovirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford in the UK is likely to provide protection against the disease for about a year.
On June 13, two weeks after reaching agreement with the university, AstraZeneca Plc signed a contract with European governments to supply the region with the vaccine.
In a statement posted on the AstraZeneca Plc website, the chief executive officer, Pascal Soriot, said the vaccine was still in the clinical trial phases. If trial results convince regulators that the vaccine is safe and effective, deliveries would be expected to start by the end of 2020.
Soriot said the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved the start of phase three trials of the vaccine after the first two phases showed sufficient efficacy and safety.
The contract is for up to 400 million doses of the vaccine, the company said, adding that it was looking to expand the manufacturing of the vaccine. AstraZeneca has committed to make the vaccine available at cost during the pandemic, meaning that the company would not make any profit from it.
According to the statement, the deal is the first contract signed by Europe’s Inclusive Vaccines Alliance (IVA), a group formed by France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands to secure vaccine doses for all European Union member states as soon as possible.
It is important to note that to date, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
PesaCheck has looked into an article claiming that 400 million doses of a COVID-19 cure have been set aside for distribution worldwide and finds that it is PARTLY FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker James Okong’o and edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.