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PARIS – French President Emmanual Macron said on Friday the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine appeared to be “near ineffective” on people over the age of 65 – just hours before the European medicines regulator approved it for use on all adults.
“The real problem with AstraZeneca is that it doesn’t work as we expected,” Macron told a group of journalists, including POLITICO, in Paris. “We are waiting for the EMA [European Medicines Agency] results, but today everything suggests that it is almost ineffective on people over 65 years, some say those 60 years or more. “
Later today, the EMA gave the green light to the vaccine. He said: “There are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years) to provide a figure for vaccine efficacy in this group. However, protection is expected, as ‘an immune response is observed at this age group and on the basis of experience with other vaccines; since there is reliable information on safety in this population, scientific experts at the EMA considered that the vaccine can be used in the elderly. “
German experts said on Thursday that people aged 65 and over should not be given the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, dealing another blow to European vaccination efforts. The draft recommendation from a committee that advises the country’s public health institute said more data is needed to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness in this age group.
AstraZeneca rejected the view of German experts, saying the latest analysis of clinical trial data actually supports efficacy in those over 65 and that this information is expected to be released by the EMA in the coming days. A spokesperson added that reports of low efficacy in adults over 65 “do not accurately reflect all of the data.”
Macron said the problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine would complicate the vaccination strategy in the EU, given that it is largely based on prioritizing the vaccination of the elderly population and healthcare workers. He said that another unforeseen twist was that the vaccines that are more complicated to produce and store – those based on mRNA technology that had never been used before to produce a vaccine – are the ones that seem the most. efficient.
“What no one foresaw, which is both wonderful and one of the aspects of this crisis, is that the vaccines that worked best were the most complicated … which means in this crisis, we’re saying the Twingo takes longer to produce than the Tesla which we’ve never produced before, ”he said, comparing the base Renault model to Tesla’s electric car.
Although France is home to the Institut Pasteur, which cracked the HIV virus and bears the name of the inventor of the rabies vaccine, and other large pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi, no French laboratory has yet produced a COVID-19 vaccine. approved.
Macron questioned the strategy of some countries, including the United Kingdom, to prioritize a first dose of a vaccine whose effectiveness is based on two doses taken within 28 days.
“If we look at the UK strategy – I am not commenting on other people’s strategy, but we have to be very careful right now in how we compare vaccine strategies. The goal is not to have the greatest number of first injections, ”he said.
“When you have all the medical agencies and the industry saying you need two injections to make it work, 28 days apart, which is the case with Pfizer / BioNTech. And you have countries whose vaccine strategy is to administer a single jab, I’m not sure that’s very serious, ”Macron added.
“When I listen to the scientists who say we speed up mutations with just one injection because the virus adapts … we lie to people when we tell them they were vaccinated by getting an injection of a vaccine which consists of two injections. “
France’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start compared to most EU countries and the UK, placing it near the bottom of the rankings, although it has picked up speed in recent weeks.
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