Macron: AstraZeneca Vaccine Seems ‘Quasi-Ineffective’ for Over-65s

"The real problem on AstraZeneca is that it doesn’t work the way we were expecting it to"

Correctly points out that older people were not included in clinical trials in any significant numbers so no conclusions can be drawn

French President Emmanual Macron said Friday the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine appeared to be “quasi-ineffective” on people older than 65 — just hours before the EU’s drugs regulator approved it for use on all adults.

“The real problem on AstraZeneca is that it doesn’t work the way we were expecting it to,” Macron told a group of reporters, including POLITICO, in Paris. “We’re waiting for the EMA [European Medicines Agency] results, but today everything points to thinking it is quasi-ineffective on people older than 65, some say those 60 years or older.”

Later in the day, the EMA gave the vaccine the green light. It said: “There are not yet enough results in older participants (over 55 years old) to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group. However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines; as there is reliable information on safety in this population, EMA’s scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults.”

German experts said Thursday that people aged 65 or older should not be given the AstraZeneca coronavirus jab, dealing another blow to European vaccination efforts. The draft recommendation from a committee that advises the country’s public health institute stated that more data is needed to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine in this age group.

AstraZeneca rejected the German experts’ view, stating that the latest analysis of the clinical trial data in fact supports efficacy in those over 65 and that this information is expected to be published by the EMA in the coming days. A spokesperson added that reports of efficacy being low in adults over 65 is “not an accurate reflection of the totality of the data.”

Macron said problems with the AstraZeneca jab will complicate the vaccination strategy in the EU, given that it is largely based on prioritizing vaccinating the senior population and healthcare workers. He said another unforeseen twist was that the vaccines that are more complicated to produce and store — those based on the mRNA technology that had never been used before to produce a vaccine — are the ones that appear to perform best.

“What no one foresaw, which is both wonderful and one of the aspects of this crisis, is that the vaccines that worked best were the most complicated… meaning in this crisis we’re saying the Twingo is taking longer to produce than the Tesla that we had never produced before,” he said, comparing the basic Renault model with Tesla’s electric car.

Although France is home to the Pasteur Institute which cracked the HIV virus and is named after the inventor of the rabies vaccine, and to other Big Pharma companies like Sanofi, no French lab has produced an approved COVID-19 vaccine yet.

Macron questioned the strategy by some countries, including the U.K., to prioritize a first dose of a vaccine whose effectiveness is based on two doses taken within 28 days.

“If we look at the strategy of the U.K. — I’m not the commentator on others’ strategy, but we have to be very careful right now in how we compare vaccine strategies. The goal is not to have the biggest number of first injections,” he said.

“When you have all the medical agencies and the industrialists who say you need two injections for it to work, a maximum of 28 days apart, which is the case with Pfizer/BioNTech. And you have countries whose vaccine strategy is to only administer one jab, I’m not sure that it’s very serious,” Macron added.

“When I listen to the scientists who say we accelerate the mutations with only one injection because the virus adapts… we are lying to people when we tell them they’ve been vaccinated by getting one injection of a vaccine that consists of two injections.”

The vaccination campaign in France got off to a slow start in comparison with most EU countries and the U.K., placing it near the bottom of the rankings, though it has ramped up its speed in recent weeks.

Source: Politico


French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine appeared not to be effective for people over 65 years of age.

Speaking to reporters only hours before the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended the vaccine for adults of all ages, Macron also questioned Britain’s decision to delay the second dose of Covid vaccines to inoculate more people.

Macron said there was “very little information” available for the vaccine developed by the British-Swedish company and Oxford University.

“Today we think that it is quasi-ineffective for people over 65,” he told the reporters, his office confirmed to AFP.

“What I can tell you officially today is that the early results we have are not encouraging for 60 to 65-year-old people concerning AstraZeneca,” he said.

Macron said he was awaiting the EMA’s verdict — which came later Friday — and also that of France’s own health authority “because they have the numbers”.

The French expert decision on the vaccine is expected at the start of next week, according to sources close to the health authority.

“I don’t have any data, and I don’t have a scientific team of my own to look at the numbers,” Macron acknowledged.

Addressing the UK’s vaccination strategy of stretching the time between first and second doses in order to give the protection afforded by the first dose to the maximum number of people, Macron said “the objective is not to have the largest possible number of first doses”.

In an attempt to speed up its vaccine rollout, UK health chiefs have delayed second doses for up to 12 weeks.

“When you have all the health agencies and the manufacturers who are telling you that for it to work you have to have two injections with a maximum of 28 days between the two, as is the case with Pfizer/BioNTech, and you have countries that have a vaccination strategy of only giving one injection, I am not sure that it’s totally serious,” said Macron.

“Scientists tell you that we accelerate mutations when you only give one injection because people are less well covered and therefore the virus adapts.

“We lie to people when we say ‘you are vaccinated’. You have a first dose of a vaccine that is made up of two,” he added.

Meanwhile, Germany’s vaccine commission on Friday maintained its advice against using AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccines on older people.

“The reason is because there is currently insufficient data on the effectiveness of the vaccines on people above 65 years old,” said the commission known as STIKO.

The advice by the panel of medical experts will be taken into account by the government as it officially draws up its decree on usage of the vaccine.

The discussion about the right target age group for the vaccine has compounded controversy surrounding AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

The European Commission Friday published a redacted version of its contract with the drugs giant, hoping to prove the company had breached a commitment on vaccine deliveries.

Brussels is furious with the pharmaceuticals company after it warned that it would only be able to deliver a fraction of the doses the EU had been expecting once the vaccine is approved for use in the bloc.

Source: AFP

2 Comments
  1. yuri says

    macron struggling w thinking—ineffective thinking or quasi stupidity

  2. ken says

    Can’t have a real vaccine without a real virus. Even pharma says they don’t stop the spread and that masks and distancing will still be required. So the purpose of these jabs are…?

    They give them to people they have locked up in nursing homes or schools. You think they didn’t know that the very young and very old were not part of the test groups!

    What is it with some people… a bad guy kills a loved one,,, relatives want him put to death, Another bad guy with a needle comes and kills a loved one. So sorry, Charlie.

    They should just limit it to the flat liners that are fighting each other for a better place in line. They’ll still make their billions and reduce the population.

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