February 5, 2021

Q&A with Oxford scientists on new preprint on the vaccine and the B.1.1.7 ‘Kent’ coronavirus variant strain

The University of Oxford have posted a preprint looking at preliminary findings of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and the B.1.1.7 ‘Kent’ variant of the coronavirus.

Please note this data is a preprint, so it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and is not published in a journal.

We thought it’d be useful for science journalists to have the opportunity to ask the authors questions about the preprint so we asked the scientists to make themselves available for a 30 minute Q&A.

Speakers included:

Prof Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford

Prof Sarah Gilbert, Saïd Professorship of Vaccinology, Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of Comments.