The COVID vaccine race has faced a hurdle, after a participant in the Oxford-AstraZeneca trials developed neurological symptoms, prompting the company to pause the trials voluntarily.

Health care news publication Stat reported that the participant was a woman from the and she did receive the vaccine as opposed to a placebo and that her symptoms were similar to a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis.

Now the AstraZeneca-Oxford research has been the frontrunner in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine as we know, and this hurdle has triggered a global shutdown of the phase 2 and phase 3 trials.

As questions are rife on social media over this development, are these snags normal or does this call for a re-assessment of this vaccine race? And secondly, what’s the road ahead on the trial timeline? Tune in to The Big Story!

Producer and Host: Shorbori Purkayastha
Guests: Professor Giridhar R. Babu, Head of Lifecourse Epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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