The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, was one of the first vaccines available for use in the UK and around the world during the COVID pandemic. More than two billion doses have been distributed to at least 170 countries, with around 50 million doses administered in the UK.
But most of those were first and second doses – only a little over 56,000 doses of AstraZeneca had been given as booster doses as of May 2022. The vast majority of third doses administered in the UK have been Pfizer (30.1 million doses) and Moderna (9.4 million).
So despite being an excellent vaccine, the use of AstraZeneca in the UK has declined across the pandemic. It’s also not used much elsewhere in Europe, or in the US where it has yet to be approved.
