The AstraZeneca vaccine was rushed like Russia's Sputnik vaccine and for the same reasons.

Like Russia, the UK is far behind the United States on tech so it has a profound inferiority complex. The UK's covid statistics were also truly abysmal, some of the worst in the developed world. The Tory regime wanted a political win so it ordered a rush job. Combined with the bias of British nationals and their inferiority complex and you have a recipe for the standards being a lot lower than normal.

But even still, the AstraZeneca vaccine has a very fatality count and the potential to save a lot of lives, especially in the developed world where a readily transportable, storable vaccine will be very useful.