If you are 58 years old, you can receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in France ... but a priori not in Germany or the Netherlands.
With four years older, that still won't be possible if you live in Sweden and Norway.
But beware: beyond 65 in Spain, you will have to be considered an “essential” worker.
And past 80, it will not be recommended at all in Tuscany (Italy), for example.
Difficult to navigate in the age groups allowing to receive this anti-Covid product, towards which all eyes are fixed since the suspicion of an increased risk of thrombosis hovers.
Three new cases were identified in one week in France, or twelve in total.
If the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommends continuing the AstraZeneca vaccination, the benefit / risk ratio being considered positive, each country remains sovereign to decide on its own strategy.
Forbidden to under 55s in France
This vaccine had been suspended in a large part of European states for a few days, in mid-March, while the EMA carried out its investigation into several cases of thrombosis identified on the continent.
Since the recovery, in France, only people aged 55 or over can receive it.
The Haute Autorité de Santé pointed out "a possible increased risk of disseminated intravascular coagulation and cerebral thrombophlebitis in people under 55 years old".
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Ditto in Spain ... provided you are also under 65 years old.
But since a new announcement made on March 30, this age limit no longer applies to “priority” categories.
A 66-year-old doctor or policeman, for example, can be vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
In Germany, anyone could initially receive this vaccine at the end of the suspension.
But since Wednesday March 31, the target has been limited to 60 years and over, unless there is a risk of severe form of the disease or if one belongs to one of the priority groups such as caregivers.
This Friday, the Netherlands in turn suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 60 years old.
Even Belgium, which had not however suspended injections at all in mid-March, could do so for certain categories.
A decision from the Higher Health Council is expected early next week.
Initially, it was the other way around
All of this is all the more disturbing as even before the suspension, AstraZeneca was sometimes banned for ... the elderly.
Or quite the reverse of the current situation.
France and Germany, in particular, had only validated its use for those under 65.
In question ?
A lack of data regarding the efficacy of the vaccine in the elderly.
Some had even interpreted it as proof of ineffectiveness, as Emmanuel Macron seemed to suggest at the end of January in front of foreign journalists.
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How did AstraZeneca's vaccine come to this?
The story of a doubt
Finally, based on the results of a study conducted in Scotland and suggesting very good efficacy of AstraZeneca regardless of age, the French and German health authorities had revised their judgment.
The product was then, for the first time, authorized for all major age groups.
It was less than two weeks before the suspension.
But the 600,000 French people under 55 who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca since early February still do not know if they will be able to receive the second, theoretically scheduled nine to twelve weeks later.