French President Emmanuel Macron (L) is taking pictures with his smartphone from a document held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 July 2020.
JOHN THYS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – European officials are under increasing pressure to reverse restrictions on who can receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine and to support shooting support.
On Monday, France made a return to the previous guidance on who can get the vaccine, now recommending the AstraZeneca shot to anyone under the age of 75 (with a previous age limit of 65), including those with pre-existing health problems.
Italy, Sweden and Poland have similarly implemented age-restrictive guidelines on who can receive the AstraZeneca shot, but the French movement has raised expectations that they too could follow suit and provide jab to older age groups.
A renowned immunologist from Germany earlier this week called on the country to change its position, repeating the comments of other health experts in the country. Speaking to the BBC, Carsten Watzl, head of the German Society for Immunology, asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to take the vaccine live on TV to show that it is safe.
Watzl’s comments come amid tensions over the slow launch of vaccines in the EU and the growing hesitation over the AstraZeneca blow. In addition, parts of Europe are struggling to avoid a third wave of infections, largely caused by the spread of several infectious variants, which makes vaccines more urgent.
German criticism
The German vaccination committee has indicated that it is reviewing its previous guidelines and may issue an update soon. The head of the commission, Thomas Mertens, told the ZDF broadcaster on Friday that it is “possible” that the vaccine could be eliminated for those over 65 years of age.
He also defended the committee against criticism that it was too critical of the AstraZeneca vaccine, amid reports that thousands of doses remained unused in Germany and beyond Europe due to public restraint (and misunderstanding).
“I never criticized the vaccine, I just criticized the lack of data for the age group over 65,” Mertens said. However, he acknowledged that the public message about the vaccine was “somehow wrong”.
Renowned health experts in France have also denounced what someone described as the “AstraZeneca bully”, and French Health Minister Olivier Veran went so far as to have the shot live on television.
What happened?
The European Medicines Authority, the European Medicines Agency, has approved the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant and Oxford University, but health regulators in France and Germany, including Europe, have approved the vaccine only for people under the age of 65, saying there is not enough evidence to prove the vaccine’s effectiveness in the older age group.
This hesitation fueled a dull takeover of the photograph by the audience. The AFP news agency reported on Monday that only 273,000 doses of AstraZeneca were administered in France out of 1.7 million received at the end of February, citing figures from the health ministry. Last week, the German health ministry said it had managed only 15 percent of the Oxford photos it had available, Reuters reported.
Public sentiment was not helped by the somewhat ambivalent comments of senior European officials.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, was quoted in January as telling reporters that the AstraZeneca vaccine is “quasi-effective” for people over the age of 65, and Merkel, 66, insinuated that she is too old to be shot, going against data and experts who show that the vaccine is safe and effective for those over 65 years.
The position of France and Germany seemed to ignore the EMA guidelines which stated that the data show that the vaccine is effective for anyone over the age of 65, the main target group for vaccines given higher risk factors than Covid-19, which are associated with older age.
Since the authorization of the EMA, a growing number of clinical trials and real-world data involving older age groups have shown that the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is highly effective in preventing Covid-19 infection, 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 vaccine in an attempt to provide more people with initial protection has also proved effective. The UK has now vaccinated more than 20 million people with a first dose of coronavirus vaccine. To date, Germany has inoculated just over 6.3 million people (4.2 million of those who received a first dose), according to official data. France has given at least one dose of the 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 decisions in other European countries.
Asked if other countries should analyze real-world data from Public Health England, Pollard said: “I think the scientific committees in each of these countries will do just that in the coming days,” he told the BBC’s “Today” program. Radio 4..
“The power of the evidence we see now … all of this is being accessed by scientific committees in different countries and I’m sure it will help support their decision-making,” he added.