Angela Merkel won’t get AstraZeneca vaccine
Hundreds of thousands of doses of coronavirus vaccines from AstraZeneca in Germany are being left unused. Angela Merkel: I won't get vaccinated with AstraZeneca
Source: B92, Jutarnji list, Index.hr
Although the European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use and although Germany procured 1.4 million doses of that vaccine from the British-Swedish company, only less than 190.000 doses were used, which is about 13 percent. However, the German chancellor finally "sealed" vaccine's destiny.
Namely, as the Croatian media report, Angela Merkel, who is 66 years old, stated that she will not be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine because "she does not enter the age group for whom this vaccine is recommended".
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor has said she will not take the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine because at 66 she is older than the upper age limit for it.
The German authorities have not approved the vaccine for people over 65.
Germany has used 13 per cent of the 1.4 million doses delivered. A poll suggested half the population would rather wait than receive what an eminent virologist called a second-class vaccine.
The effectiveness of the vaccine was first questioned by French President Emmanuel Macron despite the European Medicines Agency (EMA) giving it the green light, when he suggested without substance that the AstraZeneca vaccine was "quasi-ineffective" in over-65s.
The German Chancellor previously described the Anglo-Swedish vaccine as "a reliable vaccine, effective and safe", adding that "as long as vaccines are as scarce as they are at the moment, you can't choose what you want to be vaccinated with."
This was followed by a question from journalists: "Given this problem of accepting vaccines, shouldn't you be an example to others and get vaccinated, which Angela Merkel replied briefly and confidently:" I am 66 years old and I do not belong to the age group recommended for AstraZeneca".
But the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalist has more questions: "You could take BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to promote vaccination." But Angela Merkel also had an answer to that: "It is very well accepted. I think it is right that, along with particularly vulnerable and elderly people, we first invite those groups of the population who cannot keep their distance in their work to get vaccinated. Those are people who should come in line before someone like me”.
The Guardian, meanwhile, has published a report showing the consequences of this development for Europe - four of the five doses of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine delivered to EU countries have yet to be used.
Using data extracted from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and other official sources, it is estimated that 4.849.752 of the 6.134.707 doses distributed among the 27 member states have not yet been administered.
