AstraZeneca vaccine. Photo = Yonhap News
[아시아경제 나한아 기자] In Europe, the Financial Times (FT) reported on the 27th (local time), as distrust of the Corona 19 vaccine jointly developed by AstraZeneca (AZ) and Oxford University is growing.
According to FT, until the 26th, France had used only 16% of the 1.1 million AstraZeneca vaccines supplied, and Italy had used only about 200,000 of the 1 million doses. Germany released just over 20% of the 1.45 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine supplied to the market.
The remarkably low supply of AstraZeneca vaccine is due to the fact that countries are restricting their use to the elderly until sufficient data on efficacy are available. In Spain, AstraZeneca vaccination was banned for those over the age of 55. Germany and Italy also do not vaccinate people over the age of 65. In France, AstraZeneca vaccine is given only to people aged 50-64 and medical workers.
The fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine is powerless against the mutant virus that originated in South Africa is also raising vaccine distrust. Pfizer and Modena vaccines were also found to be vulnerable to the South African variant, but the AstraZeneca vaccine was analyzed to be ineffective, according to FT.
As the use rate of AstraZeneca vaccine is low, stocks are being accumulated, and countries are preparing countermeasures. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “The AstraZeneca vaccine is not without problems,” but emphasized that “this is not enough to make vaccination impossible.”
Meanwhile, there are observations that Germany will soon grant AstraZeneca vaccination to people over 65 years of age. According to the Guardian, Thomas Mertens, chairman of the Vaccination Committee of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), recently appeared on the German ZDF broadcast and said, “There is a possibility that the elderly may also receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.” “He said.
Reporter Han-ah Na [email protected]