We're still in the early stages of the vaccine race


We're still in the early stages of the vaccine race

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DRIVING THE NEWS: The Oxford and CanSino vaccines didn't lead to any severe adverse reactions or hospitalizations, according to the results released yesterday. * Safety — not efficacy —


was the main thing these studies were supposed to be testing. And they performed well enough to move on to further trials. * Competing candidates from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have also


performed well in safety trials. YES, BUT: Future trials will be the ones that tell us whether any of these potential vaccines actually trigger patients' immune systems to respond to


the virus. * In the results released yesterday, Oxford researchers gave their vaccine to 543 people but only tested 35 for "neutralizing antibodies." A separate, nonrandomized


group of 10 people got a booster dose of the Oxford vaccine a month after the initial dose. * Preliminary antibody responses from CanSino's vaccine were "disappointing" to


several experts. "IT'S A LOT OF HYPE," said Paul Offit, a physician and vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "It's just trying to read the tea


leaves of what will be a large phase three trial." THE BOTTOM LINE: There are 23 coronavirus vaccines in clinical testing right now, according to the World Health Organization. * We


now have data on the first four, but the studies mostly are confirming that the vaccines aren't severely harmful and that large-scale studies are warranted — not that they definitely


work yet. * "It is good and hopeful news indeed, but we'll only know when the large trials are done," tweeted Robert Califf, a former FDA commissioner under Barack Obama. GO


DEEPER: Read more about the state of the global race for a vaccine