More questions on AZ Vaccine, US Pandemic in three charts.

Astrazeneca drums up vaccine hesitancy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2BF1RE

I'm glad I stressed caveats apply with the AZ vaccine press release. Apparently they only showed data from their US trial up to February 17th. The independent safety monitoring board that oversaw the trial is now urging AZ to share its full trial data. According to the monitoring board, the full trial data showed a lower efficacy (69-74%) than the partial data AZ presented.

A lot of discussion has centered around the regulatory environment and the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, but I think we also have to concede the company has not helped their cause. This is now one of multiple instances of the company withholding data selectively in its communications to the public.

Beyond the immediate issues these mistakes have generated in regards to vaccine approval, they also are having significant damaging effects on vaccine hesitancy with this vaccine in many parts of Europe.

It will be a shame if this harms vaccine uptake. This vaccine in particular will be a vital part of vaccinating the developing world. J&J may have to take up significant slack in that regard if people remain wary of this vaccine.

Distilling the US Pandemic Experience in three charts.

South Korea has case 1 on the same day we did, but rolled out testing more than a thousand times faster than we did. Many countries did it 50 or 100 times faster. With our universities and biotech, there's no excuse for not being number 1. This guaranteed an ugly first wave.

In February, Republicans perceived Coronavirus to be a slightly bigger threat than Democrats did. By March, Democrats' concern increased while Republicans' concern almost disappeared. This eliminated any chance of test/trace/isolate being effective, and directly led to our second wave.