TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s National Immunization Advisory Committee released new guidelines on Monday that advise against vaccinating people 65 and older with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, citing a lack of information on the effectiveness in this range age.
The vaccine was authorized for people aged 18 and over by the drug regulatory agency Health Canada on Friday. The committee’s recommendations are not binding, but they can influence provincial vaccination plans.
The Health Canada decision noted that data from available clinical trials were too limited to safely estimate how well the vaccine worked in people aged 65 and over.
But he also said that “evidence emerging from the real world” in places that had already started using the vaccine suggested a potential benefit and no safety concerns.
A preliminary study of Scotland’s vaccination campaign published last week suggested that the injection of AstraZeneca was highly effective in preventing serious infections there.
In Germany, the advice to use the vaccine only for people under the age of 65 has led to low acceptance of available doses.
(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)