The German Government’s Health Minister, Jens Spahn, and the health ministers of the German federal states have agreed not to administer AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine to those under 60 years of age.
As an exception, some people under 60 years of age may receive the vaccine only “at the discretion of doctors and after an individual risk analysis and exhaustive explanation,” according to the ministers. The general use of the Astrazeneca drug will only be allowed for those over 60.
This decision has been taken in , after the German cities of Berlin and Munich have suspended the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 60 years of age while waiting to examine whether thirty cases of thrombosis are related to the inoculation of this drug.
In nine of the 31 cases detected, the patients died. All the cases, except for two, correspond to women between the ages of 20 and 63, reported the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the government institution in charge of approving vaccines, reports Ep.
Previously, the Charité hospital in Berlin and the German operator of hospital centers Vivantes had already stopped vaccination for women under 55 years of age with the Astrazeneca vaccine. The Berlin health authority, Dilek Kalayci, announced that this decision was a “precautionary measure” and that they would await the outcome of investigations at the federal level.
In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the directors of five of the six university hospitals have also spoken out in favor of temporarily suspending AstraZeneca’s vaccinations for younger women.
New blow to vaccination
Germany and many other countries had temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca in March because they (blood clots) were registered in the cerebral veins. Shortly thereafter, the vaccine was once again considered safe for use.
The German authorities resumed vaccination with doses of the Anglo-Swedish preparation on March 19, after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed that it was safe. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 2.7 million first doses with Astrazeneca and 767 second doses have been administered in Germany.
This vaccination policy change in Germany is a further blow to AstraZeneca’s troublesome vaccine and another threat to Europe’s already vaccinated campaign.
Merkel: “These are findings that we cannot ignore”
“These are findings that we cannot ignore,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday night, acknowledging that this latest decision will create even more uncertainty among the population. “We all know that vaccination is the most important tool against the coronavirus, that we have different vaccines at our disposal is our luck,” she wanted to add in a statement collected by Bloomberg.
In Spain, the Public Health Commission, in which the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities are represented, has agreed that essential workers who have extended their retirement age and, therefore, are over 65 years of age, may be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca injection.
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