UK's AstraZeneca to team up with creators of Russia's Sputnik V on Covid-19 vaccine trials, cites potential 'wider protection'
11 Dec, 2020 10:01
British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced a partnership with the team behind the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to explore the potential of combining its own experimental formula with the pioneering Russian product.
The agreement, revealed on Friday morning, came after the Russian scientists took to Twitter to propose that AstraZeneca try the combination. They said it was worth experimenting with the model preferred by Moscow researchers and using two different types of injection, rather than relying on the same one twice, as AstraZeneca has done previously.
In a statement to the press, the British company unveiled "a clinical trial programme to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a combination of AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Sputnik V, developed by the Russian Gamaleya Research institute."
They added that "combinations of different Covid-19 vaccines may be an important step in generating wider protection through a stronger immune response and better accessibility."
Responding to the news, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which financed the Gamaleya Institute's research, wrote that it was "an example of Russia's proactive approach: it has not only created one of the world's most effective vaccines to date against the coronavirus, but is ready to share Sputnik V vectors with those willing to produce vaccines using the two-vector technology."
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The UK media has previously drawn criticism for its coverage of Sputnik V. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that it had been "rushed out to wary Russians," while remaining far more positive about the start of immunizations in the country using US pharma giant Pfizer's vaccine. It remains to be seen how the Western media will cover the news that the UK's flagship formula is turning to the East in a bid to improve its efficacy.
It appears as though antifa and their affiliated terrorist organizations have successfully established a Portland autonomous zone in the blocks around the now-famous Red House after running off police and sheriffs who had a judges order to evict a family from their foreclosed home on Tuesday morning. Hundreds of protesters have now shown up to hold the area. They've set up fortified barricades and have established check points at the entrances. This is despite Vichy "mayor" Ted Wheeler vowing to not allow an autonomous zone and authorizing police to use whatever tools necessary to prevent such from happening.
The pretend "police" have declared the area a no-go zone.
Instead of actually acting, "chief" Chuck Lovell took to twitter to beg the terrorists to stop, and claimed that the terrorists were stockpiling weapons.
News crews are being assaulted and threatened in broad daylight simply for crossing the border:
Even antifa sympathizers are afraid to take pictures inside the zone:
The Oregonian reported:KOIN6 adds this video report which gives some background to why the eviction was started in the first place:The initial response to police showing up at the "Red House on Mississippi" was frantic and ad hoc, but a day later occupiers appeared determined to hold any incursions at bay.
By Wednesday, they had stockpiled homemade shields and other defensive gear, piled up rocks and bricks and laid down homemade spike strips to puncture the tires of any vehicles that could breach the barricades.
A group of social justice activists have fortified their position at the small red house on North Mississippi Avenue after camping on the property in recent months to support the Kinneys, a Black and Indigenous family who had lived there for decades but lost their home to foreclosure.
Then, said Brad Ness, another longtime neighborhood resident, carloads of protesters arrived, piled onto the street and strapped on body armor and knee pads.
Ness said that, over the hours that followed, he watched as truckloads of wood, car tires, fencing and other materials were unloaded for the fortifications that now block off the street around the red house.
This was after more than three months of complaints associated with the red house and the surrounding area. From September through November, police said they received more than 80 calls about the property, including reports on fights, shots fired, burglary, theft, vandalism, noise, trespassing, threats by people with guns and blocked traffic, sidewalks and access to homes.
Now the occupiers' blockade stretches at least two-and-a-half blocks, from North Skidmore to Blandena streets, along North Mississippi and Albina avenues, with groups of black-clad guards posted at each intersection.
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