Germany Advises Against AstraZeneca Vaccine for The Elderly

By Staff, Agencies

Germany's vaccine commission said Thursday it could not recommend the use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine for older people, the latest twist in a row over the jab that has put Britain and the EU on a collision course.

The panel of scientific experts, called STIKO, said the vaccine should only be given to people aged 18 to 65 years old as "there is currently insufficient data to assess the efficacy of the vaccine for persons aged 65 years and older."

AstraZeneca and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson immediately defended the jabs, which have already been widely used in Britain on older people.

A spokesperson for the British-Swedish company said the latest clinical trial data for its vaccine, developed with Oxford University, "support efficacy in the over 65 years age group."

Johnson told reporters the UK's own regulator had established "that they think the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is very good and efficacious, gives a high degree of protection."

AstraZeneca's vaccine has not been granted approval yet for general use in the European Union.

But the bloc's medicines regulator EMA is poised to authorize it on Friday.

The latest doubt over the vaccine came as AstraZeneca was already locked in an increasingly bitter spat with the EU over delivery problems.

Citing issues with its European factories, the company has informed the EU that it could only supply a quarter of the doses it had promised for the first quarter of 2021.