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AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine not for over 65s, German health body says

pharmafile | January 29, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications AstraZeneca, COVID-19 

Germany’s main public health body has recommended that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is only administered to those aged between 18 and 64 years.

The Rober Koch Institute’s Standing Vaccine Commission said in a statement that there was “insufficient data currently available to ascertain how effective the vaccination is above 65 years”.

The update comes after confusion earlier this week regarding the efficacy of the vaccine, which is made by AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University.

Two German newspapers cited government sources as saying that the jab’s efficacy was as low as 8% in people aged over 65.

AstraZeneca has since dismissed the reports as “completely incorrect”, and the German health ministry also stated that the figures had been misunderstood.

A spokesperson for the ministry said: “At first glance, it appears that two things have been confused in the reports: About 8% of the subjects in the AstraZeneca efficacy study were between 56 and 69 years of age, and only 3 to 4% were over 70 years of age.

“However, this does not infer an efficacy of only 8% in the elderly.”

The EMA approved AstraZeneca’s vaccine today, making it the third COVID-19 vaccine available for use in the EU .

Darcy Jimenez

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