Doubt over Oxford vaccine
Spain due to decide on use for pensioners
Spain due to decide on use for pensioners
SPAIN was still debating yesterday (Thursday) whether to give the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus to people aged over 65, but decided on Wednesday that it would not be administered to over 80s.
As such, people over 80 will only be given the messenger RNA vaccines, which currently are those made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency on Friday but seven European countries have set age limits for its use, starting with Germany and including France and Sweden, while Belgium decided not to give it to over 55s.
Experts consulted by state news agency EFE shared these doubts, explaining that the concern is not whether the vaccine is safe for these age groups, but whether it is effective.
Spanish vaccinology association (AEV) vice-president, Fernando Moraga-Llop said there had been few participants over 65 in the AstraZeneca clinical trial.
“It is certainly not that the vaccine is contraindicated, but so far its effectiveness for over 65s has not been proven,” he explained.
He recommended that it should not be dispensed to
this age group until there are statistics which prove its effectiveness, as there are for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Vaccine spokesman for the Spanish family medicine society (Semfyc), Pablo Aldaz said the technical specifications of any medicine only say they should be dispensed to certain groups if they have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective.
Although only 4% of the
Pfizer subjects were senior citizens, ‘at least they had them’, and he noted that children did not participate in these trials either so cannot be included in the technical specifications for these vaccines.
“AstraZeneca will have to decide whether to do research and trials on this,” said Sr Aldaz.
“From a safety point of view, we do not believe there would be a problem, there is not much difference between a person aged 60 and one aged 70, but doubt remains over its efficacy.”
At the national health meeting on Wednesday, health minister Carolina Darias told the regions they would be receiving at least 6.7 million doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines until March.
Pfizer/BioNTech is sending 1,779,570 doses in February and 2,705,040 in March; while there will be 412,000 from Moderna and 1,810,575 from AstraZeneca this month – with the first batch due to arrive between February 6 and 8.
The minister said that the regions had been given 2,218,755 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, of which they had administered 1,764,778 (79.8%).
Regarding the possibility of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, Sra Darias said they were ‘open and enthusiastic’ about any vaccine, as long as it is approved by the EMA, ‘which is the only requisite’.
Valencia region
The regional health department in Valencia reported on Wednesday that it had administered 164,359 jabs. Of these, 161,133 were from Pfizer and 3,226 from Moderna.
They stated that 59,612 people have now received the two required doses.