French President Emmanuel Macron (L) is taking photos with his smartphone from a document by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 July 2020.
JOAN THYS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – European officials are under increasing pressure to reverse restrictions on who can receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine and generate support for the shooting.
On Monday, France made a change of direction on the previous guide on who can get the vaccine, and now recommends shooting AstraZeneca to anyone under the age of 75 (up to a previous age limit of 65). including those with pre-existing health problems.
Italy, Sweden and Poland have similarly implemented age-restriction guidelines on who can receive AstraZeneca’s shot, but France’s decision has raised expectations that they too could follow suit and offer the jab to groups of older age.
A renowned immunologist in Germany earlier this week called on his country to change its stance, echoing the comments of other health experts in the country. Speaking to the BBC, Carsten Watzl, head of the German Society of Immunology, urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to take the vaccine live on television to prove it is safe.
Watzl’s comments come amid tensions over the slow deployment of EU vaccines and growing hesitation over the shooting of AstraZeneca. In addition, some parts of Europe are struggling to prevent a third wave of infections, caused largely by the spread of more infectious variants, which give more urgency to vaccine administration.
German criticism
The German vaccination committee has indicated that it is reviewing its previous guidelines and could post an update shortly. The head of the committee, Thomas Mertens, told ZDF on Friday that it was “possible” that the vaccine could also be removed for those over 65.
He also defended the committee from criticisms that had been too critical of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid reports that thousands of doses would be unused in Germany and beyond Europe, due to public apprehension (and misunderstanding). ).
“We never criticized the vaccine, we just criticized the lack of data for people over 65,” Mertens said. However, he admitted that public messages about the vaccine “have somehow gone wrong.”
Leading health experts in France have also denounced what someone described as “flagrant AstraZeneca” and French Health Minister Olivier Veran went so far as to receive the live shot on television.
What went wrong?
The European drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, approved the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant and Oxford University in January, but health regulators in France and Germany, among others in Europe, only they approved the vaccine for those under 65, saying there was not enough evidence to demonstrate the vaccine’s effectiveness in the older age group.
This hesitation has fed on a meager prey of the public. The AFP news agency reported on Monday that only 273,000 doses of AstraZeneca had been administered in France out of the 1.7 million received at the end of February, citing figures from the health ministry. Last week, the German health ministry said it had only managed 15% of the Oxford shots it had available, Reuters reported.
Public sentiment has not been helped by the somewhat ambivalent comments of some senior European officials.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, was quoted in January as telling reporters that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “almost effective” for people over 65, and Merkel, 66, has hinted that she is too old to shoot. , against data and experts. which demonstrate that the vaccine is safe and effective for those over 65 years of age.
The position of France and Germany seemed to ignore the EMA guidelines that the data showed that the vaccine was effective for anyone over 65, the main target group for vaccines with the highest risk factors for Covid. -19 that are associated with old age.
Since EMA authorization, a growing group of both clinical trials and real-world data related to older age groups has shown that the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is very effective in preventing Covid infection. -19, hospitalizations and deaths.
It has also been shown to reduce the transmission of the virus and the UK’s decision to delay the second dose of the vaccine, in order to offer initial protection to more people, has also been shown to be effective. The UK has vaccinated more than 20 million people with a first dose of coronavirus vaccine. To date, Germany has inoculated just over 6.3 million people (with 4.2 million of those receiving a first dose), according to official data. France has administered at least one dose of vaccine to nearly 3 million people, according to the latest figures on Sunday.
Oxford Vaccine Group director Andrew Pollard said on Tuesday that UK real-world data should be used to inform decision-making in other European countries.
Asked if other countries should look at real-world Public Health England data, Pollard said: “I think the scientific committees in each of these countries will do exactly that in the next few days,” he told the Today program. of BBC Radio 4.
“The strength of the evidence we are seeing … all of this is being accessed by the scientific committees of different countries, and I am sure they will help in their decision making,” he added.