Troy Cassar-Daley performs during the 2020 Tamworth Country Music Festival (Image: AAP/Peter Lorimer)

Vaccine trial paused

Days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison triumphantly announced that a deal with AstraZeneca could mean Australians were vaccinated by January, the company’s stage three clinical trial has been paused over safety concerns.

The trial, conducted by the company and the University of Oxford, was suspended after a participant in the United Kingdom had a serious adverse reaction.

We don’t know much about what that reaction is, but AstraZeneca called the pause “a routine action whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in a large trial”.