Will Germany also allow those over 65 to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca?

(Patria) - German government health advisors have suggested that the country may soon allow those over 65 to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca's vaccine. This is an important signal coming at a time when a number of European Union countries have large quantities of AstraZeneca vaccine doses in storage.

Thomas Mertens, chairman of the German vaccination commission, told ZDF television that it would issue a modified recommendation very soon. He referred to the earlier decision by German government bodies to vaccinate only those under 65 with AstraZeneca.

His comments come at a time when unused doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine are piling up in warehouses across Europe, and doubts about the vaccine's effectiveness are spreading in a number of European countries, including France and Germany.

Croatia, it should be recalled, ordered the most vaccines from AstraZeneca - 2.7 million doses.

As of Saturday, Germany had used only 363,645 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, while having 1.45 million doses available.

Regional health officials warn that thousands of Germans have not shown up for their scheduled vaccination appointments when they learned they were scheduled to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

The situation is not much better in France. Only 21% of AstraZeneca doses have been used there out of the 1.1 million doses available. Among those who shy away from the vaccine are healthcare workers, writes the Financial Times.

German officials say the main reason for the distrust of AstraZeneca is precisely the recommendation that those over 65 should not receive it. Such a decision was made, according to those who made it in Germany, due to a lack of reliable data on the effectiveness of AstraZeneca's vaccine in that age group.

"We never criticized the vaccine itself... we just said that the data for those over 65 were not adequate," Mertens said, adding that the vaccination commission's opinion on AstraZeneca has improved "in light of new data that has emerged in the meantime," writes Index.