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Few people care who made the flu vaccine or childhood vaccines against a number of deadly diseases. Covid changed that, turning vaccine manufacturers into family names and asking for calls to choose from.
Doses are still low for now, amid a global one stir inflamed by a dispute between the European Union and the British pharmacist AstraZeneca Plc. Most of the more than 90 million people who have been shot are considered lucky to protect themselves from the pandemic. But vaccines are proliferating, with positive test data Johnson & Johnson i Novavax Inc. place your candidates in the approval row.
Health officials will need to figure out how to allocate all of these vaccines. The European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for all adults on Friday, but limited data from trials on its effectiveness in the elderly have led some countries to impose restrictions. Germany said it should only be used for those under 65, while Italy warned not to administer it to those over 55.
Many people who have been disregarding efficacy rates, dosing schedules, or side effects want to decide for themselves. If the options are a trait of a Western drug manufacturer that has been controlled by an independent regulator or a Russian or Chinese lab with less transparency, that desire is even greater.
“We demand that the government provide people with freedom of choice,” said Gergely Arato, a member of the opposition party of the Democratic Coalition in Hungary.
Vaccines Sputnik V Covid-19.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg
Hungary broke ranks with other EU members to approve Russia’s Sputnik V and a Chinese vaccine Sinopharm Group Ltd., together with the three features authorized by the European Drug Regulator – of Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca. While Prime Minister Viktor Orban offers technically options, his promotion of Chinese and Russian traits jeopardizes the “willingness of people to get vaccinated,” Arato said at a news conference this month.
In the United States, where the only two shots allowed so far – from Pfizer and Moderna – use similar technology and have shown virtually identical test results, the choice may matter less for now. Elsewhere, however, some health authorities have begun to address people’s concerns about vaccine differences.
Dubai, Hong Kong
In Dubai, residents over the age of 60 or with pre-existing conditions can access the feature developed by Pfizer BioNTech SE, or Sinopharm.
In Hong Kong, officials ordered enough doses of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and AstraZeneca, along with plans to get a fourth option, will cover the 7.5 million residents.
The Pfizer shot will be available at community vaccination centers, with the Sinovac and Astra options offered in private hospitals and clinics, and people will be given the choice of which they want to receive. This is important in Hong Kong, where some people are wary of taking a Chinese-made vaccine.
“If residents don’t want to get a particular vaccine, they can choose to receive the shots at another time and in another place,” Carrie Lam, chief executive, said in December.
Supplies are so scarce in most of the world that choice remains impossible. Those who receive shots often have no idea which one they will receive until they walk in the door of a vaccination center or doctor’s office. But that could change if J&J, Novavax and CureVac NV will go live in the coming weeks and will be liked by the pharmaceutical giants Sanofi i Novartis AG they give their utmost effort to production.
EU approval
Even if they don’t offer options, health care providers have to decide who gets what. At the Cassandra Calabrese, of the Cleveland Clinic, has been telling patients to take any vaccine offered to them, though some have asked her which one she would recommend. “Things can be different as they get more approved,” he said in an email.
Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine vials.
Photographer: Oliver Bunic / Bloomberg
The European Union, criticized for its slow deployment of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, expanded its offerings on Friday by approving the shooting of AstraZeneca. As a sign of the growing tide of people wanting to choose, approval came after days of intense debate over the effectiveness of the shot, and the German vaccination commission recommended its use in the elderly.
In the UK, where infections and fatalities are much higher than in Hong Kong, health authorities prioritize the rapid inoculation of as many people as possible. The second dose of two-shot vaccines is being delayed in an effort to get the first injections into as many arms as possible. Other countries are considering similar steps.
The distribution is based on “supply and logistics, such as the availability of very cold freezers,” a UK Health Department spokesman said in an email. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna injections should be kept frozen for long-term storage, while refrigeration is sufficient for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Efficiency rates
While the UK has set a list of priorities for vaccine recipients (starting with older and vulnerable people), it does not assign the different traits based on a person’s profile, the agency added. Therefore, an 80-year-old patient could get AstraZeneca shot while another person of the same age and health condition could get Pfizer.
Some Britons express a preference for the cause of patriotism rather than what they might have read about different rates of effectiveness or side effects. It doesn’t matter that the U.S. company’s vaccine was 95% effective in large trials, compared to an average of 70% for taking AstraZeneca.
“They’re saying they want to wait for the British,” Jimmy Whitworth, a public health professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in a telephone interview. “I think it’s purely a nationalist point of view.”
– With the assistance of Veronika Gulyas, Jinshan Hong and Adveith Nair
(Updates to the German and Italian guidelines in the third paragraph)