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New Numbers

AstraZeneca has reiterated that its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is effective, saying that its latest analysis indicates it is 76 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, the Associated Press reports.

Earlier this week, the company announced that a US-based trial of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developed with Oxford University was 79 percent effective in protecting against symptomatic COVID-19. But an independent data and safety panel soon informed US officials that it was concerned that the data AstraZeneca released was outdated and possibly misleading.

In its newly released data, AstraZeneca presents adjusted, though similar numbers, as the Verge notes. Business Insider adds that the new data indicate the vaccine is between 68 percent and 82 percent effective, and experts tell the AP that the new numbers are "reassuring."

"The primary analysis is consistent with our previously released interim analysis, and confirms that our COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in adults, including those aged 65 years and over," Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, says in a statement.

The Scan

Suicidal Ideation-Linked Loci Identified Using Million Veteran Program Data

Researchers in PLOS Genetics identify risk variants within and across ancestry groups with a genome-wide association study involving veterans with or without a history of suicidal ideation.

Algorithm Teases Out Genetic Ancestry in Individuals at Biobank Scale

Researchers develop an algorithm known as Rye to tease apart ancestry fractions in admixed individuals at a biobank-scale, applying it to 488,221 UK Biobank participants in Nucleic Acids Research.

Multi-Ancestry Analysis Highlights Comparable Common Variants at Complex Trait-Linked Loci

Researchers in Nature Genetics examine common variants implicated in more than three dozen conditions, estimating genetic effect similarities across ancestry tracts in admixed individuals.

Sick Newborns Selected for WGS With Automated Pipeline

Researchers successfully prioritized infants with potential Mendelian conditions for whole-genome sequencing or rapid whole-genome sequencing, as they report in Genome Medicine.