AstraZeneca vaccines have not yet been recommended for over-65s
Credit: Hauke-Christian Dittrich/Pool via REUTERS
German scientists have urged Berlin to speed up vaccinations by following the UK’s example in delaying the second dose as German regulators look set to make a U-turn by approving the AstraZeneca jab for over 65s.
A team of pandemic researchers believe delaying the second dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines beyond the current 28 days would speed up the process, provide greater protection for the population and result in “up to 10,000 or 15,000 fewer deaths” in Germany.
The authors of the study, prepared by a team of pandemic researchers from Berlin’s Humbolt University and the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, say delaying the second dose would also prevent vaccine mutations from continuing to gain traction.
Berlin-based pandemic researcher Dirk Brockmann told Germany’s Deutsche Welle news service on Sunday that a change in strategy would boost the country’s lagging vaccination rollout.
Delaying the second dose would double the speed of ongoing vaccinations as “you no longer just put the second dose back in the fridge and wait."
“According to that data, there is complete protection against death from Covid in the risk groups after the first dose. That’s a huge success,” said Prof Brockmann.
Coronavirus Germany Spotlight Chart — cases default
"We are now seeing the third wave, so this change could protect a lot more people in the high-risk groups from death and serious illness," he said.
Germany’s vaccination advisory committee is reportedly considering extending the time between the first and second doses to 60 or even 90 days.
The boss of Germany’s vaccination advisory committee, Thomas Mertens, said more information is now available about the effectiveness of one dose than at the time the 28-day period was recommended.
"At the time of our recommendation, much less was known about the duration of immunity," he told Deutsche Welle.
“I have no problems agreeing to the extension, based on the new data”.
Mr Mertens also indicated that Germany was likely to change course on its recommendation not to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to over 65s, saying errors had been made.
In promising “a new, updated recommendation very soon”, Mr Mertens said “somehow the whole thing went very badly”.
Speaking to Germany’s ZDF news network, Mr Mertens said the vaccine commission never sought to criticise the AstraZeneca vaccine itself, but had attempted to point out that the underlying data was lacking.
The decision led to a backlash against the vaccine in Germany, with around three quarters of the 1.4 million delivered doses of the vaccine still sitting in storage and waiting to be administered.
Mr Mertens said the commission believed the AstraZeneca vaccine was “very good” and that their opinion of the vaccine was “now even better with the addition of the new data”.
“We had the data that we had and based on this data we made the recommendation. But we never criticized the vaccine. We only criticised the fact that the data situation for the age group over 65 was not good or not sufficient.”
German Health Minister Jens Spahn, already under fire for his country’s delayed vaccine rollout, has also faced criticism for holding a fundraising dinner in October of 2020 the day before testing positive for coronavirus.
Mr Spahn attended the fundraising dinner with about a dozen entrepreneurs in Leipzig on October 20th, just hours after warning Germans that the main points of contagion are when partying and socialising, Germany’s Spiegel newspaper reports.
“Above all, we know where the main contagion points are. Namely when celebrating, while socialising, at home privately or at the event, at the party in the club,” Mr Spahn told the ZDF morning magazine on October 20.
On October 21, Mr Spahn tested positive for the virus – forcing the other dinner guests into quarantine.
No rules were broken, and Mr Spahn insists everyone present wore a mask.
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