An Oxford University professor has reignited the row over AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN)’s covid vaccine by claiming the criticism the jab received might have cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Sir John Bell, who worked on the vaccine’s development, told the BBC that “Bad behaviour from scientists and from politicians has probably killed hundreds of thousands of people – and that they cannot be proud of.”
The use of the Astra vaccine stalled in western countries and elsewhere after a small number of highly publicised incidences of clots linked to a rare blood disorder, especially in the young.
Britain has now recommended that the jab only be given to the over-40s while the US has never given its approval.
AstraZeneca also had to fight a legal battle with the European Union over supplies of the vaccine, despite France’s president Emmanuel Macron claim that it didn’t work as “expected”.
Germany dropped the vaccine for the over-65s a year ago saying there was no evidence of its efficacy.
Italy, France, Poland and Sweden also stopped using it though data published later showed the jab was as least as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna alternatives, especially over longer periods.
In an interview in November, Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive, claimed that the low level of hospitalisations in the UK from recent variants such as Delta and Omicron might be the result of the widespread use of its vaccine in the initial jab programme.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine was also produced on a not-for-profit basis and accounts for the vast majority of jabs supplied to third world countries.
Other vaccine suppliers have been criticised for the small number of doses made available to low-income countries.