A report circulating in Sri Lanka claims that a COVID-19 vaccine trial at the University of Oxford in England has been “successful”. The purported news article, which has been shared repeatedly on Facebook, states 72 out of 100 COVID-19 patients recovered from the virus after receiving the vaccine.
"The reports headline translates to English as: “England’s CHADOX1 Corona vaccine becomes a success”.", Below is a screenshot of the misleading article:, "The report\xa0translates to English as: “Biologist Sarah Gilbert and a team of researchers from Englands Oxford University have run a clinical trial of the ChAdOx1 vaccine on April 23.\xa0 A total of 72 out of 100 corona patients have completely recovered after using the vaccine by now (April 27). However, Englands medical research agency still has not granted authorization to mass produce this vaccine.”", The blog site is named "CNN Lanka" but is not\xa0connected\xa0to the US-based media channel CNN, which operates under a different URL, and is not one of CNN\s global partner channels., The article was also shared on Facebook here, here and here\xa0alongside a similar claim., A team of researchers at the\xa0University of Oxford\xa0did begin testing a COVID-19 vaccine, formally called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, using\xa0human volunteers on April 23 and the study is being led by Professor Sarah Gilbert., But the claim that the trial was successful, curing\xa072 out of 100 COVID-19 patients of the disease,\xa0is false., Vaccines are administered to people in order to prevent a particular\xa0disease, rather than to cure them of one., "According to the University of Oxford, up\xa0to\xa01,112 volunteers were invited to\xa0participate in the\xa0clinical trial for the coronavirus vaccine. The volunteers were required to have\xa0never tested positive for COVID-19, according to\xa0eligibility requirements published on the vaccine trials website here.", Below is a screenshot of the participation criteria:, In an email to AFP on April 29, 2020, Dr. Joanna Bagniewska, an Oxford University Paediatrics Department Communication and Public Engagement Officer,\xa0said the trial was\xa0ongoing., The success rate of the vaccine also remains unknown, she said., In a statement published on April 23, 2020, the University of Oxford said that results would be released once\xa0researchers can\xa0“compare the number of infections in the control group with the number of infections in the vaccinated group.”, “We may get enough data in a couple of months to see if the vaccine works, but if transmission levels drop, this could take up to six\xa0months,” the statement reads., John Bell, an Oxford regius professor of medicine, told NBC News on May 3, 2020 that the vaccine research team is “pretty sure we’ll get a signal by June about whether this works or not.”, EXCLUSIVE: Sir John Bell of Oxford University says “we’re pretty sure we’ll get a signal by June” about whether this works or not. #MTP #IfItsSunday\n\t\tSir Bell: “This is likely to be a seasonal coronavirus vaccine.” pic.twitter.com/sIFeXb6KJy, The image in the misleading posts contains an illustrative image of a vaccine that was previously published here on April 24, 2020., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Hoax report circulates about University of Oxford coronavirus vaccine trial | AFP Fact Check