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What went wrong with the vaccine?
The trials were abandoned after some participants returned false positive results for another illness – HIV.
CSL said the false positives were caused by so-called ‘molecular clamp’ antibodies. There were no serious adverse events or safety concerns.
There is no possibility the vaccine gave people HIV but the trial was scrapped to keep public confidence in the other vaccines.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said the vaccine was likely to have worked but ‘we didn’t want to have any issues with confidence.’
What is a false positive?
A false positive is when someone tests positive for a disease they do not have.
Is the whole project over?
Yes. UQ vaccine co-lead, Professor Paul Young, said that although it was possible to re-engineer the vaccine, the team did not have the time needed.
‘Doing so would set back development by another 12 or so months, and while this is a tough decision to take, the urgent need for a vaccine has to be everyone’s priority,’ he said.
Will we have enough vaccines?
Yes. The government has deals to buy three overseas vaccines which are all on the verge of approval.
The government has secured an extra 20million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, taking the total to 53.8million, and an extra 11million doses of the Novavax vaccine, taking the total doses of that jab to 51million.
Each vaccine requires two doses, meaning either of these jabs can vaccinate the whole population of 25million.
There is also a deal for 10million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which is already being rolled out in the UK under emergency approval.
Health Minister Greg Hunt revealed everyone in Australia could be vaccinated before the end of 2021.
‘At the end of the day, 31 million new vaccines purchased for Australia, and the potential for a slightly earlier completion of the rollout with the commencement process still on track for March,’ he said.
