(Newswire.net— September 18, 2020) — British pharmaceutical corporation AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trial epically failed after a volunteer developed a serious neurological condition and spinal inflammation, Russia Today reports.
A previously healthy 37-year-old woman was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition after she was administered a second dose of a trial anti-COVID vaccine, internal documents show.
It was determined that the volunteer, whose name was not disclosed to the media, developed transverse myelitis, a rare neurological ailment caused by inflammation of the spine, after receiving a second dose of an experimental anti-COVID vaccine produced by a British pharmacological giant.
Though the report states that the woman had no adverse reaction after her first dose in early June, she began to experience neurological symptoms some two weeks after her second injection in August.
The symptoms started during her jogging routine when she tripped due to a motor function issue. The next day, she experienced difficulties walking, weakness in her arms, impaired motor control over her hands, a headache, and reduced feeling in her torso. On September 5th, the woman was hospitalized and diagnosed with “confirmed transverse myelitis.”
The company’s own internal report – known as a “Suspected or Unexpected Serious Adverse Reaction report” or SUSAR, confirmed diagnostics on two occasions. The report read that the volunteer had no previous neurological conditions that could explain the neurological disease, concluding that probable cause is the experimental anti-COVID vaccine.
“The resolution of her symptoms is quite rapid considering her illness started only four days ago,” the report says, adding that her symptoms were improving.
Less than a week after developing symptoms, however, the woman began to make a recovery. “Her strength and dexterity in her hands were getting better,” the report observed.
To date, no other trial participants have experienced similar reactions to the vaccine. AstraZeneca consider it a breakthrough in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
In a previously released report called “participant information sheet”, the company acknowledged that a volunteer had developed “unexplained neurological symptoms”, while avoiding linking the woman’s condition to the vaccine they developed. However, the company paused its trials worldwide after the incident.
Furthermore, AstraZeneca claimed the reaction was “considered unlikely to be associated with the vaccine or there was insufficient evidence to say for certain that the illnesses were or were not related to the vaccine,” despite the internal revision which determined an obvious link between the vaccine and neurological conditions that the volunteer developed.
The company resumed trials in the UK and Brazil, but their trials remain on hold in the US until health authorities determine it is safe to continue, said Moncef Slaoui, Moroccan-born Belgian-American researcher and former head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines department, now chief adviser to the US government’s Covid-19 vaccine effort.
According to Oxford University, some 18,000 volunteers around the world have received the experimental anti-COVID vaccine.