Promising Oxford vaccine is put on hold

The TLDR: Developed in partnership between AstraZeneca and Oxford University, this Covid vaccine is one of the most promising of the nine currently in stage 3 human trials. But the company halted testing due to a suspected adverse reaction in one of the UK participants. Serum Institute—which is conducting trials in India—has been hauled up by the government for not doing the same. We look at what happened, and what it means for India. 

Quick background on trials: As we explained before, vaccine testing is conducted in separate stages:

• It is first tested on animals to see a) if it is safe and b) if it triggers an immune response. Then there are multiple rounds of human trials on volunteers. 
• The first round is conducted on a small sample of 10-plus people to check if it is safe for human use. 
• The next round has 100-plus volunteers and focuses on dosage—how much to administer and with what frequency.
• The third round of human trials requires a very large sample size, and is typically conducted in an area with a large number of Covid cases. There is a group that gets the placebo, while the other receives the vaccine. Then you wait and see whether the drug actually protects those who were vaccinated.

The participant who fell ill was part of Stage 3 trials in the UK.

OK, tell me what happened to this person

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