These quotes are from a long Washington Post article about the soap-opera like saga of the AstraZeneca vaccine:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/astrazeneca-vaccine-challenges-europe-pandemic/2021/03/21/d8568076-88f0-11eb-8a67-f314e5fcf88d_story.html
This article walks through a history of many events beginning last year in March. I was able to open this link without logging in. I hope those who are interested in reading this long article can do so as well. But I also made a summary (below). First, some quotes from the article to introduce things:
“AstraZeneca’s (AZ’s) coronavirus vaccine was supposed to be the shot that dug the world out of the pandemic: a cheap, easy-to-administer dose that would protect not just citizens of wealthy nations but also those in the most vulnerable countries.”
“Instead, the inoculation, a collaboration between University of Oxford researchers and one of the world’s biggest drug companies, has been plagued with missteps as other vaccine rollouts gain speed. First, there was confusing basic science, then, missed delivery targets. Now, a confidence-sapping pause in Europe that followed reports of rare blood clots among a handful of the vaccinated.”
“Had the rollout of the AZ vaccine been handled differently, it might have been available far more widely by now, blunting a new wave of death and disease that is threatening lives around the world. Countries that have administered it widely, such as the UK, credit AZ with helping drive a dramatic drop in hospitalizations and deaths. But public confidence in the company’s vaccine has taken a major hit, slowing its acceptance and delaying the battle against the pandemic.”