Spain will not apply it to people over 55

Spain’s health ministry said on Friday it would limit the use of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine to people under the age of 55, after other European countries decided to apply comparable restrictions.

France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and other countries have set age limits for this vaccine, developed by the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, due to the lack of risk assessment in the elderly.

Spain joined this payroll on Friday: “The Public Health Commission, following scientific evidence, has approved the setting of the maximum age of 55 years for people who will receive doses of the vaccine against covid-19 d ‘AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford,’ said the statement from that country’s Department of Health.

Thus, this Iberian country has also ruled in the opposite direction to that stipulated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has approved its use in the European Union for all over 18 years.

The German Vaccine Authority was the first last week to recommend that the AstraZeneca vaccine not be given to people over 65 years of age, given that there is not enough information to determine its effectiveness after this age.

And Switzerland asked for “additional data” before giving the green light to its use.

The vaccine from AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company which angered European leaders over late delivery of doses, was the third to be cleared by the EU, after Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.

Spain has administered around 1.9 million doses and plans to vaccinate 70% of its 47 million inhabitants by the summer, a target the government is guaranteeing despite delays in receiving doses from laboratories.

Health Minister Carolina Darias said this week the government was open to the possibility of Spain administering Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, provided it receives the green light from the EMA.

Source: AFP