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Germany is not alone: some members of the French health staff also require vaccines from Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. This reluctance is reflected in the January conflict, when it was concerning whether EU countries would get their share of AstraZeneca vaccine shipments as deliveries slowed.
The EU vaccination campaign is already lagging behind that of the United States and the United Kingdom, and it will not be possible to reach these countries in the near future if people do not want to vaccinate 300 million people. vaccines the unit has ordered from AstraZeneca.
Media reports of serious unwanted side effects led German Health Minister Jens Spahn to declare on Wednesday the immunization was “safe and effective” and that he would not hesitate to vaccinate himself.
It is unlikely that the 40-year-old Spahn will be vaccinated for some time, as the vaccination of the population in Germany favors the elderly and health workers. The EU confirmed new orders from Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the most contagious mutated virus, originating in the UK, is spreading, accounting for more than a fifth of new cases in Germany.
A quarter of the 300 people who had been vaccinated with AstraZeneca last week soon called the Dortmund ambulance service to complain of the ailments, a local newspaper said, citing data from the internal fire department. Health officials in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Dortmund is based, have recommended vaccinating smaller groups of health workers at the same time to avoid staff shortages, the dpa news agency reported.
Side effects
“Of course we monitor side effect reports and take them very seriously,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin. “At the same time, it is very important to distinguish between the expected response to the vaccine and the unwanted side effects.”
An AstraZeneca spokesperson said the drug’s manufacturer had not received any reports of reactions that did not match the data collected in clinical trials and reiterated that there were no serious adverse reactions to its product. Documented side effects include reactions such as headache, fatigue, chills, fever, malaise, and muscle aches.
The Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany has found “almost no” unwanted side effects from the three approved vaccines, Spahn said. The institute is carefully reviewing reviews for all vaccines to make sure they meet the parameters set out in clinical trials and plans to release its latest report on Thursday, an institute spokesperson wrote in an email.
In Europe, vaccines with AstraZeneca began the first weekend in February, about five weeks after British officials listed similar side effects from different vaccines.
The vaccine program can face logistical challenges, and many European countries recommend that the vaccine be given only to people under 65 years of age until more data is published on the effects of vaccines in older people.
This means that health authorities will have to classify the priority groups of people to be vaccinated into two categories: Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for seniors, and leave the AstraZeneca product to doctors, nurses and nursing home staff.
The Perigue Hospital in southwestern France found that 50-70% of healthcare professionals who were vaccinated had side effects, some of which were ‘very serious’, and demanded in an open letter that the AstraZeneca vaccine be replaced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
The online platform doctolib.fr, where vaccination orders are completed, has hundreds of vacancies for healthcare professionals to receive the Astra vaccine, and only a handful of places to vaccinate with the other two vaccines.
In late January, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed doubts about the effects of the Astra vaccine in the elderly, saying that the vaccine was “almost ineffective” for people 65 and older. There is a lack of clinical data on its level of effectiveness in the elderly, but there is no evidence that it does not work.
Spain has decided that the vaccine will be administered to people 55 years of age or younger. About 418,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have been delivered in regions of the country, but fewer than 35,000 have been injected to date. of 2.7 million injected doses.
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