The Public Health Commission of the Ministry of Health has ruled that it will extend the vaccination range with AstraZeneca to people between 60 and 69 years of age, thus raising the limit of 65 that existed yesterday. In addition, it leaves in the air those who have already received a dose and their age is less than 60 years.
“The 60-65-year-old group that is currently being vaccinated will continue to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca and that the next group to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca is the 66-69-year-old group, with the aim of completing the vaccination of the population most vulnerable to the disease as soon as possible. COVID-19, other vaccines may be used depending on availability Regarding people who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca, the Commission will shortly communicate the decision on the second dose as the scientific evidence is updated and expanded, the EMA assessments and in communication with other EU countries,” the opinion reads.
But these restrictions will not affect the overall vaccination rate. In Spain right now there are 1,077,428 AstraZeneca vaccines in the fridges. In addition, until June 30, seven million doses will arrive, so the number of injections that there will be will slightly exceed eight million. On the other hand, in Spain (according to INE data as of July 2020) there are 2,967,221 people between the ages of 60 and 65 and 2,460037 between 66 and 69. In total, there are 5.4 million Spaniards likely to be immunized with AstraZeneca for eight million doses, so some four million citizens could be protected.
But these are numbers and the social climate must also be taken into account. The bad communication strategy that has existed in relation to the AstraZeneca antigen has caused this serum to be more doubted than others in Spain, a country where there is no notable anti-vaccination movement.
A little less than a month ago all the alarms went off, which were quickly put down (in less than a week) to continue applying the vaccine. However, the investigations continued with the result that is known today (one case of thrombus for every 100,000 vaccinated in the European Union), which was also leaked 24 hours before by the person in charge of vaccines of the European Medicines Agency.
If you look back to the day the vaccine was approved, then the doubts conveyed by the authorities were very different from now. It was then that it was decided not to vaccinate the elderly due to lack of evidence, it was said. Now the opposite is done.
However, the decision to limit vaccination with this antigen will have economic repercussions. Spain spent 56.16 million euros in October on the acquisition of just over 31 million doses from the British pharmaceutical company. If the vaccine can only be given (at least with the data that exists today) to 5 million citizens, there are more than 20 million vials that will remain in refrigerators (35.6 million euros). The contracts that have been known so far do not contemplate that there is a capacity for return, at least in its legible part.
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