Input 2021.01.31 08:11
According to the AFP news agency on the 29th (local time), President Macron met with reporters in the office of Elysee Palace on that day and said, “We believe that the AstraZeneca vaccine is almost ineffective for people over 65 years of age.” “The initial result we got is that we don’t recommend it to three age groups.”
President Macron also expressed doubts about the UK’s extending the interval between the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “Scientists explain that a single vaccination is less immune and the mutant virus can spread,” he said.
President Macron’s remarks came a few hours before the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended conditional marketing approval for AstraZeneca vaccine. France is expected to announce the approval of the vaccine early next week.
Congressman Ian Duncan Smith, former head of the Conservative Party, compared President Macron to former US President Donald Trump and set the day to “harm public health with reckless remarks.” John Bell, a professor at Oxford University who led the AstraZeneca vaccine trial, said President Macron’s argument was “very unjust and not true.”
The conflict between the UK and the European Union (EU) over vaccines is intensifying. The EU has previously inspected and pressed AstraZeneca’s factory without prior notice when the vaccine supply shortage occurred.