In the last few weeks, there have been a lot of accusations made against the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. These untested claims were made by Pfizer, the biggest American pharmaceutical biotech company.
The U.S. drug maker, without any hesitation, refuted that they had done nothing wrong to AstraZeneca after when the British TV documentary telecasted a presentation denouncing the latter company's vaccine by calling it as "potentially dangerous" and "unsafe".
We Refute All Claims
"We refute any suggestion that Pfizer has sought to undermine others' scientific endeavors," a company spokesman told the Daily Mail. "Our priority has always been getting high-quality, well-tolerated and effective vaccines to patients all over the world as quickly as possible and to help put an end to this deadly pandemic." The U.S. drug maker Pfizer has straightly refuted that they haven't tried to sabotage AstraZeneca. They further said that all the accusations were "wrongly attributed" by a third party.
Besides, there's been a long debate going on for quite some time now about the AstraZeneca vaccine. Scientists showed skepticism about the assertions made by AstraZeneca CEO on the substantial spike in Covid cases in Europe. He said that the rising Covid numbers in Europe was due to the low intake of AstraZeneca jabs among older people. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of deaths in Europe would probably go beyond 2 million, which is a serious matter of concern.
An agency reported roughly 4200 covid deaths per day in Europe, which is double the numbers we have witnessed in September. Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said, "In order to live with this virus and continue our daily lives, we need to take a 'vaccine plus' approach. This means getting the standard doses of vaccine, taking a booster if offered, as well as incorporating preventive measures into our normal routines."
In January 2021, due to many abstract claims and allegations against AstraZeneca, Germany, followed by other European countries, namely, Italy, France, Poland and Sweden, have decided not to give this vaccine as jabs to older people aged above 65 years. This move by the countries mentioned above is due to a lack of proper information about the vaccine explaining the intake requirement for older age groups.
Manufacturing Costs
Again, in March 2021, Germany's vaccination team flipped their decision about the AstraZeneca vaccine and asked those above 65 years old to get inoculated. The German Health Ministry said in a statement, "This is good news for older people who are waiting for a vaccine. They can now be vaccinated more quickly." "We will shortly issue a regulation implementing both recommendations", the Ministry further added. Other sources reported that the AstraZeneca vaccine should be used only in older people. These unassertive speculations and questions of doubt made many Europeans not take the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Channel 4 has lately revealed the untold truths about Pfizer's vaccine manufacturing costs. For the U.S. drug maker, per jab costs 76 pence, equivalent to $1.01. Woefully, Pfizer is charging £22 per jab for the U.K. government, equivalent to $29.17. The difference between the per dose vaccine cost at which Pfizer is manufacturing and the cost they are selling to the U.K. government is nearly up by 3000 percent markup. However, Pfizer called these computations "grossly inaccurate".
AstraZeneca has manufactured its vaccine in collaboration with Oxford University. On the one hand, they have sold their vaccine for 3.60 pounds or $4.77 and drowned in a loss of 21 billion pounds or $27,84 billion. On the other hand, Pfizer looped in and earned a considerable good amount of money in the process.
