British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) visits Chase Farm Hospital in northern London on January 4 (local time), watching a nurse inject AstraZeneca’s Corona 19 vaccine. London AP=Yonhap News
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s verification advisory group recommended that AstraZeneca’s novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine be administered to the elderly over the age of 65. It drew a line in the so-called’water vaccine’ controversy that triggered in Europe.
However, not all problems have been solved. There is no sharp measure if you are reluctant to get vaccinated because it is less effective than other vaccines. However, it is difficult to exclude the elderly from the AstraZeneca vaccine target. In that case, the inoculation plan had to be completely modified. That’s why the prospect that the Food and Drug Administration will eventually approve AstraZeneca vaccination for all ages.
The water vaccine controversy is due to the number of elderly people who participated in the clinical trial. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, 7.4% of the participants in the AstraZeneca vaccine clinical trial were aged 65 or older. In response to this, many experts in the verification advisory group commented that “the administration cannot be excluded just because the number of elderly people is small”, but a few thought that “the effect was not proven due to insufficient data”.
Opinions were also diverged about’antibody value’, which means how much immunity is developed after vaccination. Some experts pointed out that “the antibody titer of the elderly is lower than that of adults under the age of 65,” but most judged that “the immune response after administration is similar to that of adults.” Experts made different judgments on the same clinical data. A similar situation is expected to be repeated in the remaining two expert screening processes.
It is inevitable that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety decides to limit vaccination for the elderly. In order for the COVID-19 vaccination plan, which has already been announced by the quarantine authorities, to be implemented as scheduled, the vaccination of Pfizer (60,000 people) and AstraZeneca (750,000 people) vaccines coming in this month must begin. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is planned to be given to medical staff who treat patients with Corona 19, and the AstraZeneca vaccine is to be given first to nursing hospital residents and workers.
In this situation, if the elderly cannot be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the medical staff will eventually be given the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine must go to a nursing hospital. There are many elderly people who are difficult to move in nursing hospitals, but in reality it is not easy to visit and inoculate Pfizer vaccines that must be kept at very low temperatures. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyung said on the day that “the first quarter vaccination targets can be allocated only when the scope of the AstraZeneca vaccination is determined.” . This means that we cannot help but think about the case when the conclusion that the AstraZeneca vaccine cannot be applied to the elderly.
The key to the formation of collective immunity is the speed of vaccination, but if the vaccination plan is wrong, there is a fear that the implementation may be delayed. If you want to start vaccinating from the third week of this month, right after the introduction of the Pfizer vaccine, preparation time is still tight, but there is no room to change the inoculation plan. This is why there is an expectation that the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will be compelled to be conscious of’social demands’ no matter how many stages of expert consultation are taken. Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious medicine at Korea University’s Guro Hospital, said, “If you look at the scientific data, you should get the Pfizer vaccine for the elderly and the AstraZeneca vaccine for the younger, but the plan is in the opposite direction.” No,” he predicted.
Even if the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved for vaccination of all ages, if there are elderly people who are reluctant or refuse to vaccination, the vaccination’speed battle’ will take an emergency. Although the corona 19 vaccination is provided free of charge by the country, it is the policy of the quarantine authorities that it is based on personal consent. Commissioner Chung said, “If the AstraZeneca vaccine is effective and safe enough to form collective immunity, it is possible to inoculate it sufficiently considering the accessibility of vaccination and the frequency of adverse reactions.”
Lim So-hyung reporter [email protected]
News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver.
