Australia halts local Covid-19 vaccine development due to false HIV positives

Australia cancelled the production of a locally made vaccine against Covid-19 after trials showed it could interfere with HIV diagnosis, with the government instead securing additional doses of rival vaccines.

Antibodies generated by the vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) and biotech firm CSL, one of four candidates contracted by the Australian government, were found to lead to some false-positive HIV test results, the makers said...