Germany will only administer AstraZeneca vaccines to people aged 60 and over, unless they belong to high risk categories for Covid-19 and have agreed to use them with their doctor. The decision was made by the Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, and the representatives of the Laender, for new concerns related to some cases of rare blood thrombi reported on patients who had been vaccinated.
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The decision was made on the basis of recommendations by the independent panel of vaccine experts Stiko, after the medical regulator, the Robert Koch-Institut, released new data showing that 31 cases (out of about 2.7 million vaccinated with AstraZeneca) of rare blood thrombi have been recorded up to 29 March in people who had recently undergone the inoculations, and nine of these people died. All but two cases involved women, aged between 20 and 63 years.
In the hours preceding the meeting between the government and Laender, Berlin, Munich and Brandenburg had already suspended the administration of the Anglo-Vedese vaccine for the under 60s as a precaution. AstraZeneca, in a statement released before Germany’s announcement, said it would continue to work with German authorities but stressed that tens of millions of people around the world have received its doses and that EMA and WHO have concluded that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
This month reports of a rare form of cerebral thrombosis led to the temporary suspension of the use of AstraZeneca by many European countries. An EMA opinion then assessed that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine, whose name upon registration is Vaxzevria, outweighed the risks, recommending that patients and doctors be given warnings about possible rare side effects.
Meanwhile, on the day the EU and WHO launched an appeal to “work together” on “a new international treaty for the preparation and response to pandemics” – an appeal signed, among others, by Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel , Pedro Sanchez and Mark Rutte – showed that Austria threatens to block the EU purchase of another 100 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, unless Vienna gets a bigger slice of vaccines.
The European Union could receive 10 million additional Pfizer-BioNTech doses faster than anticipated, in the second quarter. This possibility would derive from an advance ‘order’ of the option of 100 million doses provided for in the second contract with the company and initially contemplated for the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
The Politico newspaper cites several diplomats from EU countries who have expressed indignation at the threat of Austria (which in the meantime is negotiating with Russia for a million Sputnik vaccines) and for the possibility that the EU could lose the 100 million doses if the purchase option is not exercised by the deadline of mid-April.