User:Mr. Ibrahem/Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, sold under the brand names Covishield and Vaxzevria, is a COVID-19 vaccine. It is used in people over the age of 17 to prevent COVID-19. The initial trials found that it decreases the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 by 60 to 74%. Some countries have limited its use to older people due to concerns of side effects in younger people. The vaccine is given as two doses 4 to 12 weeks apart by injection into a muscle.

Most side effects are mild to moderate and resolve within a few days. These may include injection site pain, headache, tiredness, muscle pain, and nausea. Rare side effects may include low platelets, facial palsy, blood clots, Guillain-Barré syndrome, anaphylaxis, and capillary leak syndrome. There is no evidence of specific harms with use in pregnancy, though such use has not been well studied. It is a viral vector vaccine, meaning that it is made up of another virus (adenovirus) that has been modified to contain the gene for making the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

On 30 December 2020, the vaccine was approved for use in the United Kingdom. It has subsequently been authorized for use at some level in at least 182 countries as of 2022. It has been approved for an Emergency Use Listing by the World Health Organization (WHO). It was developed in the United Kingdom by the Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. As of January 2022 more than 2.5 billion doses of the vaccine have been given worldwide. It costs about 2 to 5 USD per dose. The vaccine is stable at refrigerator temperatures for 6 months.