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The Ministry of Health has decided to vaccinate educators under 55 years of age with the first batch of the new vaccine.
A. Dulkys has not yet made a final decision on the age limit to use other shipments. His spokesman, Aistė Šuksta, told BNS that the minister had signed a mandate to the State Medicines Control Agency to present conclusions on setting the age limit. According to her, the service has so far provided an overview of clinical trials, but that’s not enough.
The European Medicines Agency last week approved the use of AstraZeneca in all adult citizens of the European Union, but also noted that there are currently insufficient studies on whether the vaccine provides effective protection for people over 55 years of age.
European countries have so far taken different positions. The British use the vaccine for all age groups, and some European countries set a threshold of 65, 60 or 55 years.
Gytis Andrulionis, head of the State Drug Control Service, says there are no doubts about the safety of the vaccine, so far there is a lack of data on its level of effectiveness in the elderly. According to him, when deciding what to vaccinate, it is important to evaluate not only the data on the drug, but also the fact that the amount of this vaccine is limited.
“The vaccine is centrally registered with the European Medicines Agency and is registered for use in people over 18 years of age. There are no contraindications or prohibitions to use the medicine in any age group. The efficacy of the vaccine simply does not was accurately determined in the elderly group because their studies were slightly underrepresented and the immune response data was slightly lower in the group over 65. However, I will emphasize that the vaccine was safe and of high quality for all age groups, excluding nothing, ”G. Andrulionis told LRT News on Saturday.
“On the other hand, the Authority points out that currently, in a pandemic situation, drug data is only one of the resource allocation problems,” he said.
Former Health Minister Aurelius Veryga criticized the government’s position. He said there was enough data to make a decision and that now refusing to vaccinate older people could undermine confidence in the vaccine. According to a “peasant” spokesperson, even if the vaccine is less effective in the elderly, it still offers benefits.
“This is what the government wants to ask: what plan? You don’t vaccinate older people, so what do you do with them? Is it kept in isolation until a sufficient quantity of other vaccines arrives? And I will notice it again. With messages like that, you just shoot yourself in the foot. And what will happen when those studies show more to the older age group, has already sowed doubt. What are you going to cut? ”Wrote A. Veryga on Facebook.
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