VACCINE: According to two German papers, Angela Merkel’s government would count on very low effectiveness of the vaccine of the British laboratory, AstraZeneca for the over 65s
In view of the fears that vaccines against coronavirus Covid-19 may inspire, AstraZeneca has carried out a demining operation. The British pharmaceutical company defended on Monday evening the effectiveness of its vaccine for people over 65 years old, denying the claims of two German media that Berlin questions the performance of the product for this age group.
“The articles according to which the efficacy of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine is only 8% in adults over 65 are completely false,” said a spokesperson for AstraZeneca.
The newspaper Bild Zeitung and the business daily Handelsblatt said Monday evening that the German government doubted the effectiveness of this vaccine on people over the age of 65. According to Handelsblatt , who refers to government sources, Berlin expects an efficiency of 8% for this age group. Bild Zeitung , also under cover of government sources, writes that Angela Merkel’s coalition expects the vaccine, which is due to receive the EU regulatory green light on Friday, not to be licensed for those over 65 .
European Union dissatisfaction
The British laboratory, whose vaccine is already authorized and widely deployed in the United Kingdom, further explains in its press release that it published scientific data in the journal The Lancet in November, “showing that the elderly have shown strong immune responses to the vaccine, 100% of which generated specific antibodies after the second dose ”.
Still, on its vaccine, AstraZeneca is also at the heart of another controversy. The laboratory was the subject of a call to order from the European Commission on Monday after announcing last week that deliveries of its vaccine would be smaller than expected in the first quarter.
