KANSAS CITY, Mo. — AstraZeneca released the initial results from its United States COVID-19 vaccine trials Monday.
The company said the vaccine is 79% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases and 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.
The trials included 32,000 people.
University of Kansas Medical Center researchers partnered with Children's Mercy Hospital to conduct a trial of about 500 people.
Dr. Mario Castro, one of the lead researchers at KUMC, said researchers were excited to hear the preliminary findings.
"This is important news for the world because this is the vaccine that is relatively easy to make, less expensive and we've prepared for it by having basically billions of doses ready for it," Castro said.
Dr. Barbara Pahud, research director of pediatric infectious diseases at Children's Mercy Hospital, said the vaccine has the potential to help reach herd immunity.
"AstraZeneca is going to be the vaccine that goes to save the world," Pahud said. "There's going to be massive production of this vaccine."
The company has had a rocky road to get to this point. Last Fall, the FDA halted trials for six weeks after concerns about neurological symptoms. Recently, blood clots became a concern. Ultimately, there was no evidence the vaccine caused either.
Dr. John Ervin, principal investigator with the Alliance for Multispecialty Research in Kansas City, said the public shouldn't be worried about the vaccine's development.
"Safety is the primary concern," Ervin said. "So anytime there's a question, they did the right thing. They halted the studies, evaluated it and said, 'Nope, looks like we're OK,' and they opened it back up and went ahead."
Ervin said he thinks communities are heading in the right direction when it comes to reaching herd immunity, but he is still concerned about the percentage of people saying they won't get a vaccine.
"I've heard most recently that was around 40%, and we need to hit 70% vaccine to get herd immunity," Ervin said.
