France approves AstraZeneca vaccine for over-65s in embarrassing u-turn for Emmanuel Macron
FRANCE has green lit the AstraZeneca vaccine for all its over-65s in an embarrassing u-turn for Emmanuel Macron.
Health minister Oliver Veran announced the decision after Mr Macron had originally claimed there was not enough data on the age group to allow older people to use it.
The decision is a humiliating blow for the embattled French President who drew heavy fire after claiming the jab was “quasi-ineffective” for the elderly.
France’s vaccination programme, along with Germany’s, has been thrown into chaos as thousands have been refused the remedy after Macron and Angela Merkel questioned its effectiveness.
Ahead of today’s u-turn, Alain Fischer, chairman of France’s vaccine strategy council, said his country would “re-adjust” its strategy.
He said the change of heart was in response to new data from a study which showed the AstraZeneca jab’s use greatly reduced hospital admissions.
The vaccine – together with the Pfizer jab – has been used with great success in the UK to bring increasingly widespread protection to the population against Covid-19.
On Friday more than 500,000 people were inoculated, bringing the total to almost 30 per cent of the adult population and is now helping to bring dramatic reductions to numbers of deaths and hospitalisations.
Meanwhile, Germany is set to follow in France’s footsteps as 1.2million of the shots are lying unused in storage.
Carsten Watzl, of the German Society for Immunology, urged Merkel to re-think Germany’s stance on the jab.
He told BBC Radio 4: “I think Germany will also reverse course soon.
“In order for us to reach our vaccination goals we need people to get this vaccine.”
He also urged Merkel, 66, to have the jab live on television to prove it is safe.
This comes as chancellor said on Thursday she would not take the vaccine because she is too old, despite begging Germans to take the remedy.
Most read in News
But Merkel told FAZ that she was not eligible because German regulators have restricted the jab to under-65s.
“In addition to the particularly vulnerable and elderly, I think it is correct to first invite population groups who cannot keep a distance in their jobs to be vaccinated,” she said.
“A daycare educator, a primary school teacher cannot do that. These are the people who should get a turn before someone like me.”