23 May 2021

• The UK government issues a press release with results from a Public Health England study conducted from 5 April to 16 May; it found that full vaccination with Pfizer/BioNTech was 88 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by the B.1.617 variant (vs. 93 percent against the B.1.1.7 variant); full vaccination with AstraZeneca was 60 percent effective against B.1.617 and 66 percent effective against the B.1.1.7 variant. Source 

• The Wall Street Journal publishes details from a previously undisclosed US intelligence report about a serious illness among three researchers at Wuhan Institute of Virology in November 2019 that led to their hospitalization, which feeds the increasing call for a fuller probe of the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Source

• Yuan Zhiming, director of Wuhan’s National Biosafety Lab, told Chinese state media that a US intelligence report stating hat several researchers at the lab were hospitalized in November 2019 was “a complete lie.” Source

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