AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will not be recommended for over-65s in Sweden as country follows Germany’s lead
- Comes after Germany and France raised objections to Oxford AstraZeneca jab
- Berlin said lack of evidence for over-65s, Macron said it was ‘almost ineffective’
- Came after EU reacted angrily to delayed jab roll-out, while Britain triumphs
- Boris Johnson has backed ‘very good and efficacious’ jab despite rancorous EU
Sweden will not recommend the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to over-65s, the country’s health ministry said today.
It comes after Germany advised against administering the jab to those over 65 and Emmanuel Macron claimed it was ‘almost ineffective’ for the age bracket.
It is not clear why Stockholm objects to the vaccine but the Germans said there was a lack of data to show how the vaccine affected elderly patients.
Boris Johnson and UK health chiefs have insisted that the jab, made by Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is effective for all age groups.
French and German objections to the jab last week came amid a furious row between the Bloc and AstraZeneca over lagging supply, which has seen newly-unshackled Brexit Britain storm ahead in its immunisation roll-out.
An 102-year-old patient in Rio de Janeiro receives the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday
Mr Johnson said on Friday that the vaccine ‘is very good and efficacious’ after health officials in Berlin warned that there was ‘insufficient data to assess the efficacy of the vaccine for persons aged 65 years and older.’
AstraZeneca has been open in saying that in their initial tests only 10 per cent of the participants were 65 or older.
But, there are trials ongoing throughout the world to test its efficacy for those over 65 and the vaccine is central to Britain’s Europe-beating roll-out operation.