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In the UK, AstraZeneca's vaccine is also approved for the elderly
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
AstraZeneca's corona vaccine is to be approved in the EU and thus also in Germany this week.
According to media reports, however, the federal government expects approval only for people under 65 years of age.
The reason for the possible non-approval of the vaccine for seniors is apparently low effectiveness in this age group, writes the "Bild" in its Tuesday edition, citing internal discussions between the federal government and the federal states.
The "Handelsblatt" reported, citing coalition circles, that the vaccine is only expected to be effective at eight percent in the group of over 65s.
"Completely incorrect"
A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, however, rejected the relevant report as "completely incorrect".
She referred to data published in November by the specialist magazine "The Lancet", according to which the elderly had shown a strong immune system reaction to the drug.
In 100 percent of "older adults", antibodies specifically directed against the coronavirus were generated after the second vaccination dose.
In the UK, the vaccine is also approved for the elderly.
However, another study states that there is still too little data on effectiveness in this age group due to the low number of cases.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) does not want to participate in speculations about an allegedly poorer effectiveness of the vaccine in over 65-year-olds.
He wanted to wait until the data from the studies had been evaluated.
"I think little of doing that now speculatively in headlines," said Spahn on Tuesday in the ZDF "Morgenmagazin".
He said a decision will be made next week on the basis of the scientific evidence "which age groups will be vaccinated with this vaccine first."
According to information from »Bild«, the federal and state governments had previously planned to use the AstraZeneca vaccine for older people who live at home and cannot visit the vaccination centers for reasons of age or illness.
The vaccine is easier to transport than, for example, the vaccine from the Mainz company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer because it does not have to be cooled as much.
According to »Handelsblatt«, the Federal Ministry of Health is already examining whether the vaccination sequence, which is staggered according to age, needs to be adjusted because of the allegedly low effectiveness of the AstraZeneca preparation in seniors.
For the government's vaccination plan, the result may be that the 65 to 75-year-old age group could miss several million scheduled doses, the newspaper wrote.
AstraZeneca is already facing criticism in the EU because the company recently announced that it would be able to deliver fewer cans than planned to the European Union.
The company cited problems in a production facility as the reason.
AstraZeneca did not initially announce how large the failures will be.
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koe / dpa