French President Emmanuel Macron (L) takes pictures with his smartphone of a document held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) during an EU summit in Brussels on July 20, 2020.
JOHN THYS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – European authorities are under increasing pressure to reverse restrictions on who can receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine and to garner support for the injection.
On Monday, France overturned its earlier guidance on who can get the vaccine, now recommending the injection of AstraZeneca for anyone under 75 (above the previous 65-year limit), including those with health problems pre-existing.
Italy, Sweden and Poland have implemented similar age-restrictive guidelines on who can receive the AstraZeneca shot, but the move from France has raised expectations that they too could follow suit and offer the jab to older age groups.
A renowned immunologist in Germany earlier this week asked his country to change its stance, echoing comments from other health experts in the country. Speaking to the BBC, Carsten Watzl, head of the German Society for Immunology, asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to take the vaccine live on TV to show that it is safe.
Watzl’s comments come amid tensions over the slow launch of the vaccine in the EU and the growing hesitation about the injection of AstraZeneca. In addition, parts of Europe are struggling to prevent a third wave of infections, largely caused by the spread of more infectious variants, making vaccine adoption more urgent.
German criticism
Germany’s vaccination committee has indicated that it is reviewing its previous guidance and may publish an update soon. The committee’s chief, Thomas Mertens, told the ZDF broadcaster on Friday that it was “possible” that the vaccine could also be released to people over 65.
He also defended the committee from criticism that he had been very critical of the AstraZeneca vaccine amid reports that thousands of doses were not used in Germany, and beyond in Europe, due to public apprehension (and misunderstanding) about it.
“We never criticized the vaccine, we just criticized the lack of data for the age group over 65,” said Mertens. However, he admitted that public messages about the vaccine “somehow went wrong”.
Prominent health experts in France also denounced what one described as “critical of AstraZeneca” and French Health Minister Olivier Veran even went so far as to present the shot live on TV.
What went wrong?
Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, approved the vaccine developed by the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant and the University of Oxford in January, but health regulators in France and Germany, among others in Europe, approved the vaccine only for children under 65, saying there was not enough evidence to prove the vaccine’s effectiveness in the older age group.
This hesitation turned into a lackluster response to the shooting by the public. AFP news agency reported on Monday that only 273,000 doses of AstraZeneca were administered in France out of the 1.7 million received by the end of February, citing figures from the ministry of health. Last week, Germany’s health ministry said it administered only 15% of Oxford injections available, Reuters reported.
Public sentiment was not helped by somewhat ambivalent comments from some European senior officials.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for example, was quoted in January as telling reporters that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “almost effective” for people over 65 and Merkel, 66, insinuated that she is too old to have the injection, going against data and experts showing that the vaccine is safe and effective for people over 65.
The position of France and Germany seemed to ignore the EMA’s guidance that stated that the data showed that the vaccine was effective for anyone over 65, the main target group for vaccines with higher risk factors in Covid-19 that are associated with old age.
Since EMA authorization, a growing number of clinical trials and real-world data involving older age groups have shown that the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine is highly effective in preventing Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
It has also been shown to reduce transmission of the virus and the UK’s decision to postpone the second dose of the vaccine, in an attempt to offer initial protection to more people, has also proved effective. The UK has already vaccinated more than 20 million people with the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Germany has so far inoculated just over 6.3 million people (with 4.2 million having received the first dose), according to official data. France has given at least one dose of the vaccine to almost 3 million people, according to the latest data on Sunday.
Oxford Vaccine Group director Andrew Pollard said on Tuesday that Britain’s real-world data should be used to inform decision-making in other European countries.
Asked whether other countries should look at Public Health England’s real-world data, Pollard said: “I think the scientific committees in each of these countries will do just that in the next few days,” he told BBC Radio’s “Today” program. 4.
“The strength of the evidence we are seeing now … all of this is being accessed by scientific committees in different countries, and I am sure it will help support your decision making,” he added.