LONDON: Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine showed in a study it had 76% efficacy against symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose, which increased if the second shot is delayed, backing Britain’s vaccine rollout policy.
The findings of the pre-print paper, which had not been peer-reviewed, supported Britain’s decision to extend the interval between initial and booster doses of the shot to 12 weeks, Oxford said on Tuesday.
However, the new study did not address concerns about a lack of data on efficacy among the oldest, who the British government have given highest priority in its vaccine rollout.
Andrew Pollard, Chief Investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said the data showed the 12-week interval between doses was “the optimal approach to roll out, and reassures us that people are protected from 22 days after a single dose.”
Britain has decided to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible by lengthening the amount of time between initial shots and booster shots to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
AstraZeneca’s research chief has said 8-12 weeks between doses seems to be the “sweet spot” for efficacy, contrasting with US drugmaker Pfizer, which has warned that the vaccine it has developed with Germany’s BionTech was not trialled with such an interval.
The results for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, gathered from trials in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, showed that immune responses were boosted with a longer interval to the second dose among participants aged 18 to 55 years.
“Vaccine efficacy after a single standard dose of vaccine from day 22 to day 90 post vaccination was 76%, and modelled analysis indicated that protection did not wane during this initial 3 month period,” Oxford academics said in the preprint.
The paper said that vaccine efficacy was 82.4% with 12 or more weeks to the second dose, compared to 54.9% for those where the booster was given under 6 weeks after the first dose.
The longest interval between doses for those aged 56 and over was between 6-8 weeks, so there was no data for the efficacy of a 12 week dosing gap in that cohort.
Europe’s medicine regulator has flagged that there is not enough data to determine how well the vaccine will work in people aged over 55, but Britain has expressed confidence the vaccine works in all age groups.
The study said that no-one out of the 12,408 people vaccinated with a single dose of the vaccine was hospitalized with COVID-19 from 22 days after immunization.
Oxford also said data seemed to suggest the vaccine reduced transmission of infections, with a 67% reduction in positive swabs among those vaccinated in the British arm of the trial.
Oxford finds COVID-19 shot 76% effective for 3 months after single dose
https://arab.news/98326
Oxford finds COVID-19 shot 76% effective for 3 months after single dose
- Britain has extended gap to second dose to 12 weeks
- AstraZeneca has hailed this as ‘sweet spot’ for efficacy
8 in 10 British Muslims face ‘financial faith penalty’ when seeking home finance, survey finds
- Restricted choices plague potential buyers
LONDON: Eight in 10 British Muslims say their home finance choices are restricted because of their faith, according to a new national survey that highlighted what researchers describe as a growing “financial faith penalty” in the UK housing market.
The report, published by Islamic home finance fintech firm Offa, found that 80 percent of Muslim respondents believe their religious beliefs limit their access to suitable home finance, while those who do use Islamic products often face slower decisions, heavier paperwork and poorer customer experiences than in the conventional mortgage market.
Based on surveys of 1,000 British Muslims conducted by Muslim Census, and 2,000 non-Muslims carried out by OnePoll, the research calls on providers, brokers and policymakers to modernize Islamic home finance and improve access to Sharia-compliant products.
Among the 24.3 percent of British Muslims who have used Islamic home finance, just 5 percent said they had received a same-day decision.
Some 62 percent waited up to two weeks, while 33 percent waited more than 15 days, including 16 percent who waited over a month.
Long decision times were cited as the biggest challenge by 28 percent of respondents, followed by excessive paperwork (22.6 percent) and poor customer service (18.9 percent).
Islamic home finance differs from conventional mortgages by avoiding interest and steering investment away from sectors considered harmful to society, including gambling, alcohol, tobacco, arms trading and animal testing.
Sagheer Malik, chief commercial officer and managing director of home finance at Offa, said the findings showed British Muslims were being underserved by outdated systems.
Malik said: “Property is the asset class of choice for many of the UK’s 3.87 million Muslims, both as a route to generational wealth and as a long-term financial foundation, yet our insightful research report reveals that British Muslims are being underserved and deterred by slow, outdated and opaque Islamic home finance provision.
“This is not a niche concern. It goes to the heart of financial fairness and inclusion in modern Britain.”
He added that Muslims deserved Sharia-compliant products that matched mainstream standards on “price, speed and simplicity.”
Despite strong demand, uptake remains low.
Only 12.8 percent of British Muslims surveyed said they currently use Islamic home finance, with a further 11.5 percent having done so in the past. More than three quarters (75.7 percent) have never used it.
Faith plays a central role in financial decisions, with 94.2 percent saying it is important that their financial products align with their ethical or religious beliefs. Yet more than half of those using conventional mortgages said they felt unhappy or uneasy about doing so because of their faith.
The study also found that British Muslims share similar home ownership aspirations to the wider population, with 79.1 percent citing the desire to provide a stable home for their family, while 18.6 percent said building generational wealth was their main motivation. Only 2.2 percent said they did not want to own a home.
The report suggests Islamic finance could appeal beyond Muslim communities. While 64 percent of non-Muslim respondents had never heard of Islamic home finance, 63 percent said they favored its ethical principles once explained.
Younger generations were the most receptive, with 43 percent of Generation Z and 37 percent of millennials saying they would consider using Islamic home finance, compared with just 7 percent of baby boomers. More than three quarters of Gen Z and 72 percent of millennials also said it was important that their finance provider avoided investing in ethically harmful sectors.
Offa said the findings pointed to an opportunity to expand ethical finance in the UK, provided the industry can deliver faster, simpler and more transparent services.
