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German authorities have suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be given to those over 65 years of age (PA)
3 min read
Boris Johnson has said that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine “is effective in all age groups” after German authorities said it should not be given to the elderly.
An independent commission that advised the government in Berlin said there is “insufficient data currently available to determine how effective vaccination is above 65 years” for the vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical giant in conjunction with the University of Oxford.
The jab has already been used hundreds of thousands of times in the UK, but when asked if the German disclosure was a concern, the prime minister answered flatly: “No.”
Speaking on a visit to Scotland, he said: “I think the MHRA, our own authorities, have made it very clear that they think that the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is very good and effective, it provides a high degree of protection after just one dose, and even more after two doses, and the evidence they have provided is that they think it is effective in all age groups.
“It gives them a good immune response in all age groups, so I don’t agree with that.”
The draft guide from the Standing Commission on Vaccines of the Robert Koch Institute, which is Germany’s main public health agency, recommends that the AstraZeneca vaccine be used only in people between the ages of 18 and 64.
It is the latest development in the dispute between the company and European nations over the application of the jab, which so far has not yet obtained final approval from the EU drug regulator, although it has several hundred million doses on request.
It was approved for use by the UK regulator, the MHRA, last month and hundreds of thousands of people over 70 in Britain have received their first dose in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, German media reported that the jab was only 8% effective among those over 65, citing government sources.
Later, the ministers claimed that the figure had been cited in error, but AstraZeneca criticized the reports as “completely incorrect”.
In response to today’s Robert Koch Institute statement, Public Health England responded, with its chief of immunizations, Dr Mary Ramsay, saying: “Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are safe and provide high levels of protection against COVID. -19, particularly against serious illness.
“There were too few cases in older people in the AstraZeneca trials to see precise levels of protection in this group, but the data on immune responses was very reassuring.”
He added: “The risk of serious illness and death increases exponentially with age; the priority is to vaccinate as many vulnerable people as possible with either vaccine, to protect more people and save more lives.”
And a 10th spokesperson said that UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance had told the cabinet earlier this week that the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine “remains safe and effective and that trials showed similar immune responses in young and old adults. “
It comes after the EU Commission stated that doses of the UK-made AstraZeneca vaccine should be exported to the mainland to make up for a shortfall at a production facility near Brussels.
And following allegations that the firm was diverting vaccines to other countries, the Belgian authorities carried out an inspection at the factory “to make sure that the delay in delivery is indeed due to a production problem.”
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot argued that the “initial problems” in the supply chain were solved in the UK before the bloc, because Britain signed a contract three months earlier.
But EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said: “We reject the logic of the order of arrival. That may work in neighborhood butchers, but not in contracts. “
He added there have been “constructive” talks with the firm after saying it is contractually bound to send UK-produced coups to 27 EU member states.
“The UK factories are part of our advance purchase agreements and that is why they have to deliver,” Kyriakides said.
