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Stiko on AstraZeneca vaccine: "We never criticized the vaccine"
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Marcos del Mazo / LightRocket via Getty Images
The corona vaccine from the British-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca is currently only intended for people under 65 years of age in Germany.
Now the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has announced that it will reconsider its recommendation on the vaccine.
There will "be a new, updated recommendation very soon," said Stiko boss Thomas Mertens in the ZDF "heute journal".
At the time of the recommendation, there were insufficient data on the effectiveness of the vaccine in the elderly.
In contrast to the EU Medicines Agency EMA, Stiko therefore decided not to recommend the vaccine for older people.
Larger intervals between vaccinations conceivable
"We had the data that we had and made the recommendation based on this data," said Mertens.
“But we never criticized the vaccine.
We only criticized the fact that the data situation for the age group over 65 was not good or not sufficient. ”However, he admitted:“ The whole thing went somehow bad. ”
The AstraZeneca vaccine is in a difficult position in Germany. Many younger people who could actually be vaccinated with the agent have concerns about reports of side effects and a reduced effectiveness compared to other vaccines.
Widespread acceptance was waning, with more than a million doses of the vaccine lying around unused recently.
Stiko boss Mertens has now assured that the vaccine is "very good" and that it will be "even better in its assessment thanks to the addition of new data."
However, he did not rule out the possibility of extending the intervals between the two necessary corona vaccinations: "I think it is possible, especially with the AstraZeneca vaccine, that you can still opt for slightly longer intervals."
After a slow start, the vaccination rate in Germany is at least accelerating somewhat.
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