The Oxford scientists who worked on the design and development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have been awarded a special accolade by the British Society for Immunology.
The Global Impact & Innovation Award was created specially to recognise the monumental effort of the Oxford Vaccine Group and their colleagues at AstraZeneca in developing the vaccine in record time. The award recognises the contribution to this effort of people from a wide and varied range of teams, but also their extended network of support, including legal, technical, admin, IT, housekeeping and childminding, as well as the people who volunteered to be involved in the vaccine trials.
The award was presented to Professor Andrew Pollard, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert and Professor Teresa Lambe at the opening ceremony of the British Society for Immunology’s Congress, which is taking place in Edinburgh from 28 November to 1 December. All three were also granted Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Society in recognition of their outstanding contribution to immunology.
More than two billion doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been supplied to more than 170 countries across every continent, and has been made available at cost price for the duration of the pandemic. Approximately two thirds of the doses have gone to low and lower-middle-income countries. It is estimated that the vaccine has prevented 50 million infections and 1 million deaths.