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US Disease Expert Fauci Says Halt of Coronavirus Trial a 'Safety Valve' at
Work

VOA News

   America's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said
   Wednesday that AstraZeneca's suspension of final global trials of its
   COVID-19 experimental vaccine points to the effectiveness of the
   safeguards that have been incorporated into the trials.

   "It's important to point out that that's the reason why you have
   various phases of trials, to determine if, in fact, these candidates
   are safe," Fauci said in an interview with "CBS This Morning."

   "It's really one of the safety valves you have on clinical trials such
   as this."

   The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant paused the trials because a
   volunteer participant became ill after receiving the experimental drug.

   "It's unfortunate that it happened, and hopefully they'll be able to
   proceed along with the remainder of the trial," Fauci said. "But you
   don't know. They need to investigate it further."

   The company issued a statement Tuesday saying the pause in testing is a
   "routine action, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially
   unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated,
   ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials."

   AstraZeneca developed the vaccine, AZD1222, in cooperation with
   Britain's University of Oxford. The vaccine is being tested in
   large-scale Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials in several nations, including
   the United States, Britain, Brazil, South Africa and India. AZD1222 is
   one of three COVID-19 vaccines in late-stage Phase 3 trials in the
   United States.

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