93-3-WMR Audio on Demand presents the Preston and Steve show podcast. And now, Preston and Steve's news

update with Kathy Romano. And it is Thursday, March 25th. Good morning, Kathy. Good morning in the

news this morning. AstraZeneca issued update phase three trial data for its COVID-19

vaccine on Wednesday after facing accuracy questions earlier this week surrounding a preliminary

report from its U.S. study. The company now says its vaccine is 76% effective in protecting against

symptomatic cases of the virus. A release issued on Monday reported a symptomatic efficacy rate of 79%. The updated report

maintains that the shot is 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization. A slate of

U.S. health officials criticized the company in recent days for what some claim was data cherry picking

in an effort to make the results appear more favorable. Well, they were using the term a cajillion, and I think that's what threw people off. Really threw people off. Billion to be would have sounded better. Billion to be, yeah, at least what's familiar. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease revealed on Tuesday it had been informed the UK-based company may have included information from its U.S. results that provided an incomplete

view of the efficacy data.

As Razeneca said at the time, the figures were based on a pre-specified interim analysis

and vowed to share updated analysis in the coming days.

I think some people are not quite sure on the whole purpose of all these, but I think

the thing to remember is that if you get the vaccination and you get it, it diminishes your body's response to the virus. So that's the end result. I mean, you know, even if you do get it, it doesn't mean you won't get it if you get the vaccine. But if you do that, the virus will be less. It's going to mitigate it. That's my understanding. Dr. Anthony

Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor, called the situation unfortunate and said it was likely

as Razenica would issue a modified statement. The updated results include data collected from

190 symptomatic cases across more than 32,000 participants, an increase of roughly 50 symptomatic

cases studied compared with the data set released on Monday. The findings suggest the vaccine

is more effective in patients 65 and older than previously understood with a newly reported

efficacy rate of 85% for that population up from the previous stated 80%. Astrozenica reiterated Wednesday that the vaccine was

well tolerated among participants and that no safety concerns were identified.

Pressing, I've reviewed a cabillion cases and the data is very promising.

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