LONDON: Data from Britainâs vaccine rollout on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University Covid-19 shot in older people should help other countries reassess their use of it, the head of the universityâs vaccine research group said today.
Britain has been rolling out the vaccine since January, beginning with the elderly and health workers, after approving its use for all adults.
Many European countries have advised that the vaccine should not be given to over-65s due to a lack of clinical trial data on its efficacy in that age group, and a significant proportion of doses of the vaccine that they have acquired have gone unused.
In the face of shortages of other vaccines, France is easing those restrictions to allow some people aged 65-74 to receive the shot.
Though efficacy data was limited in clinical trials, real world data from being generated by Britainâs vaccine rollout, has shown both AstraZeneca and Pfizerâs shot are both more than 80 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisations in over-80s after one shot.
Public Health England (PHE) also said that protection against symptomatic Covid in those over-70 is between 60-73 per cent four weeks after the first shot of Oxford-AstraZenecaâs vaccine, compared to 57-61 per cent for one dose of Pfizer-BioNTechâs one.
Asked if other countries should look at real world data from Public Health England and reassess how they use the shot, Oxford Vaccine Groupâs Andrew Pollard said: âI think that the scientific committees in each of these countries will be doing exactly that over the days ahead.â
âThe strength of evidence that weâre now seeing… all of that is being accessed by scientific committees in different countries, and Iâm sure will help support their decision-making,â he told BBC radio.
Yesterday, Englandâs deputy chief medical officer said that the PHE approach vindicated the belief in Britain that the vaccine would give protection to older people despite the initial lack of data. â Reuters
