Emmanuel Macron terms AstraZeneca vaccine to be quasi-effective for those over 65 years

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that the coronavirus
vaccine by AstraZeneca seems to be not effective for people over 65 years of
age, AFP reported.

The President’s comments came hours prior to the European Medicines
Agency (EMA)’s announcement recommending adults of all ages to be using the
vaccine.

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Macron’s said that there was “very little information” available regarding
the development of the vaccine by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, criticising UK’s decision to delay the second dosage of COVID 19 vaccines
in order to vaccinate a larger portion of the population.

“Today we think that it is quasi-ineffective for people over 65. What
I can tell you officially today is that the early results we have are not
encouraging for 60 to 65-year-old people concerning AstraZeneca”, Macron was quoted
as saying to reporters by AFP.

The French President further said he was waiting for a decision from the
EMA, as well as France’s own health authority, stating the latter to have “the numbers”.

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Reportedly, the expert decision by the French health authority is
expected to come out early next week.

Addressing the UK’s decision to hold on to the second vaccination dose
in order to inoculate as many people as possible, Macron said the aim was not
to have the largest number of first doses.

To speed up the entire process, UK Health officials have delayed the second
doses up to 12 weeks.