In the middle of a bitter dispute between the English Channel over the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, one of the scientists behind the drug accused French President Emmanuel Macron of trying to suppress the demand.
On Friday, Macron said the vaccine was “almost ineffective in people over 65, some say they are 60 or older.”
“I’m not sure where he got it from,” John Bell, a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Saturday. “I suspect this is a bit of Macron demand management,” he said. “If you didn’t have a vaccine, the best thing to do is to reduce demand.”
EU leaders reacted angrily this month to AstraZeneca’s announcement that production would fall well short of the volumes initially forecast. Macron’s recent comments came hours before the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the EU regulator for use in all age groups.
Although the European Medicines Agency says there is still not enough evidence to judge its effectiveness in older people, they say there is no reason to think that the vaccine will not work.
Bell, who oversaw the development of the vaccine, admitted that the number of elderly people tested “was small, to be fair”, but the data “still pointed to a highly effective vaccine” in all age groups.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is at the center of an ongoing supply dispute between the UK and the EU. The EU asked customs officials on Friday to block exports of all vaccines from Saturday without explicit authorization – an announcement that initially would include exports to Northern Ireland.
This triggered an immediate blowback from both the capitals of the EU and London and an overnight turnaround by the European Commission because of the sensitivity of the Irish border agreements.
EU Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier asked the Times to calm down in an interview published on Saturday, saying: “I believe we must face this crisis responsibly, certainly not in the spirit of an upman or sick competition.”
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