PARIS (AP) – France will administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine only to people under the age of 65, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday after the government’s health advisory body cited a lack of sufficient data on its effectiveness in older people.
The decision could undermine France’s vaccination strategy, because the country has prioritized residents of nursing homes and people over 75. France had the AstraZeneca vaccine for most of its next vaccinations, until the company announced delays in countries in Europe and the world.
“For this AstraZeneca vaccine, we will not be offering it to people over 65,” Macron told TF1 television Tuesday night. Instead, the vaccine that the Swedish-British company developed with Oxford University will be given to medical teams under the age of 65, individuals with health vulnerabilities or who face high exposure, he said.
French practice differs from the guidance given by the European Medicines Agency, which authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in all adults across the European Union on Friday, amid criticism that the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
Health officials in Germany and elsewhere have raised concerns that the Anglo-Swedish company has not tested the vaccine on enough elderly people to prove that it works for them and indicated that they would not recommend it to people over 65.
In a guideline issued on Tuesday, the French High Authority for Health said that “it recommends that the vaccine … be given preferably to people under the age of 65”. He says he will revise this guidance when AstraZeneca has more data on the vaccine’s effectiveness in older people.
The French government depends on the guidance of the High Authority and is adapting its strategy based on the announcement. Health officials said they are constantly adapting the vaccine strategy based on dose availability, demand and regulatory guidance.
Macron said France still intends to offer the vaccine to anyone it wants by the end of the summer.
Macron met Tuesday night with international vaccine producers and large pharmaceutical companies that have an industrial unit in France to discuss ways to “rapidly” and “significantly” increase short-term production capacities in France and Europe. The meeting came amid criticism of the way the EU is handling its collective vaccine strategy in the 27 member countries of the bloc.
Macron said he sent a scientific team to Russia several weeks ago to study that country’s vaccination efforts and “the exchanges have been very positive”. The French leader noted the first results of an advanced study of Russia’s Sputnik V published in the medical journal The Lancet, which showed that the vaccine was about 91% effective.
Macron said that if and when the European Medicines Agency decides to approve the Russian vaccine, it will not be a “political decision. It is a scientific decision. “
France has seen some of the world’s largest numbers of confirmed cases of viruses and deaths, which have been steadily increasing in recent weeks.
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