From the get-go, the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was different.
It was a nonprofit collaboration between top academic researchers at Oxford University in the U.K. and a major pharmaceutical company. It wasn’t developed by a government to be used exclusively for the people or the political whims of one nation. The company billed it as the “vaccine for the world,” costing one-tenth of what some of its rivals cost — and licensed it to other manufacturers around the globe to amplify its production. And it was going to be the backbone of the international vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX, making it the primary vaccine for low- and middle-income countries. The company AstraZeneca had the ambitious goal to get 2 billion doses into people’s arms this year.
But like so many things during the coronavirus pandemic, the path forward for this vaccine has been anything but smooth. Five months after its launch and after 400 million doses have been administered worldwide, this vaccine is one of the most controversial on the market. Just this week, Canada announced it is moving away almost entirely from using the vaccine. After suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for first doses in May across much of the country, the government is now offering Canadians who’d been waiting on a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine the option of switching to another brand to finish their immunization.
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