AstraZeneca is beginning Phase 3 trial of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in U.S.

AstraZeneca began a Phase 3 U.S. human trial of its COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, hoping to enroll up to 30,000 people to test its shot, developed with Britain's Oxford University. This will be the third final-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., joining efforts by Moderna and Pfizer. The U.K. is already in the midst of its AstraZeneca-Oxford Phase 3 trial, and preliminary results could be released as early as October.

The U.S. trial's launch had been postponed for a couple of days for reasons researchers could not explain, Bloomberg reports. But William Hartman, a University of Wisconsin investigator helping to lead the trial, and AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot both emphasized that the research will be conducted carefully, rigorously, and free of political pressure. An article Thursday in the Palm Beach Post had speculated that U.S. regulators were pressured into delaying the trial so as to pave the way for emergency use authorization before the U.S. presidential election.

A poll from Stat News-Harris released Monday found that 78 percent of Americans worry that the COVID-19 approval process is being guided more by politics than science. At the same time, 68 percent said they don't think the FDA will approve a vaccine unless they are convinced it is safe.

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