BATTLE FOR WORLD | September 20, 2020: Here we go again, a second volunteer in the British trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the novel coronavirus has fallen ill, according to the UK company internal papers. And that in both cases the participants suffered from the same serious neurological disorder. The first participant fell ill after receiving one dose of the experimental vaccine in July 2020.

AstraZeneca provided some details on Saturday (September 19) about the trials after criticism over their lack of transparency.

The first volunteer, a female, who fell ill was later diagnosed with the rare inflammatory disease, transverse myelitis, that affects the spinal cord, causing weakness, sensory alterations, and autonomic nervous-system dysfunction. The trials resumed after tests showed that the volunteer had undiagnosed multiple sclerosis.

The second volunteer, a female recipient of the vaccine was documented to have suffered complications after the follow-up dose in September, and according to a source, told the New York Times that her diagnosis was also transverse myelitis.

The vaccine being tested by AstraZeneca uses a monkey adenovirus that shares a gene with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The method being used by the company is untested in vaccine development, noted Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the Russian vaccine development.

Contrast that with the Russian approach, the technology that developed Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine, uses human adenoviruses as a vector – an extensively studied approach for safety. ...

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