ARCHIVED - Pressure growing on Spanish authorities to authorise AstraZeneca vaccine for over 55s
The Spanish Ministry of Health has been asked to follow European countries’ lead and authorise the vaccine for use on those aged over 55
Barcelona medics press for authorisation to give Oxford vaccine to older age groups.
Doctors in Barcelona are calling on the Spanish Ministry of Health to authorise the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for use in age groups over 55.
The president of the Official College of Doctors of Barcelona (COMB), Jaume Padrós, has urged the ministry to follow other countries’ lead and provide authorisation for the vaccine developed at the University of Oxford to be given to older members of the public. He complained on Twitter than while countries such as the UK and Germany have decided to administer the vaccine to people over 65, Spain claims there isn’t enough evidence of its safety or effectiveness. “As if there was for the Pfizer vaccine given to the over 90s in homes,” he tweeted sarcastically.
Many countries initially decided to only administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged between 18 and 65, but Spain went one step further and set the upper age limit at 55. Now, following publication on the internet of the results of a study by Public Health Scotland, which report the vaccine to be as effective as the one by Pfizer-BioNTech on people of all ages, the health authorities in Germany, Sweden and Italy, among others, have all said they will be authorising it for the over 65s.
At the moment the vaccine is only being given to those aged under 55, and is principally vaccinating firemen, police, pharmacists, teachers and those working in jobs which subject them to a high level of interaction with the public.
There have been many complaints from police officers, teachers etc who are aged over 55 that they are not being vaccinated along with their colleagues and must wait until their age group is vaccinated, which could be several months away given the slow pace of the roll-out in Spain due to lack of supply.