The German Vaccine Commission recommended that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine should only be given to people under 65 years of age due to a lack of data on its effectiveness in older people., according to German media reported.

The panel of scientific experts said the vaccine, developed in conjunction with the University of Oxford, should only be given to “People between 18 and 65 years old according to the available data”.

“Currently, there are not enough data to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine in people 65 years of age and older,” they said.

The recommendation comes after German newspapers in recent days announced that Angela Merkel’s government specialists doubted the product’s performance.

According to Handelsblatt, which referred to government sources, Berlin expected an efficiency of 8% for this age group. Picture newspaper, also pointing to government sources, wrote that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition expects this vaccine to receive the EU regulatory green light on Friday, You will not have a license for those over 65, with a significant impact on the vaccination strategy of many countries.

AstraZeneca rejected those reports, noting that it was effective even in that age group.

However, the CEO of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soirot, had considered non-application for those over 65 as a possibility, something that he attributed to the lack of data compared to other vaccine manufacturers. “We have strong data showing very strong antibody production against the virus in the elderly, similar to what we see in the young. It is possible that some countries, as a precaution, use our vaccine for the younger group. But, honestly, it’s okay. There are not enough vaccines for everyone. So if they want to use another vaccine for the elderly and our vaccine for the youngest, what is the problem, “he told the Italian newspaper The Republic.

AstraZeneca hopes to obtain approval from the European Medicines Agency on 29 January.

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