AstraZeneca: How Well Does the Vaccine Work in Seniors?
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.AstraZeneca's vaccine has now been approved as the third party in the EU. While the German Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) only recommends it for people under 65 for the time being, the European approval authority EMA already considers the data to be sufficient to vaccinate it in older people.
The STIKO had justified its recommendation by stating that insufficient data were currently available to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine from 65 years of age. "In the age group [...] only one case was observed in each of the two study arms," writes the STIKO according to the Pharmazeutischer Zeitung. An assessment of the effectiveness is not possible on this basis.
However, this is likely to change when further results of the studies are available. "Apart from this limitation, this vaccine is also considered to be equally suitable," it said.
The EMA, on the other hand, derives adequate protection for the elderly from the effectiveness of the vaccine in other age groups. Experience with other vaccines also suggested this.
Confusion about effectiveness
In fact, there has been some confusion recently about the vaccine's effectiveness in seniors. Some media mentioned eight percent here - but it actually seems to be a mix-up: The number probably related to the proportion of subjects from higher semesters in the relevant study. In total, that was probably 2,000 study participants.
The uncertainty continues to mess up the federal vaccination plans. Instead of vaccinating elderly people, the active ingredient could be given to hospital staff, who were already given the highest priority. However, people under 65 who are previously ill could also benefit, whose turn would actually be later.
mRNA suggests vector vaccine
Compared to the two mRNA vaccines from BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna, the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which as a so-called vector vaccine is based on a harmless chimpanzee virus, is considerably lower anyway. According to current data, it may only be a little over 60 percent in younger test subjects.
Confusion also arose in advance with this assessment. For example, some of the test subjects accidentally received only half of the intended dose in the first round of vaccination. With them, of all people, the effectiveness of 90 percent was significantly higher than with the other, correctly vaccinated people. It is still unclear why this could be.
AstraZeneca has derived a mean value of 70 percent effectiveness from both branches of the study. That is not valid. But in any case, the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine is still significantly higher than the 50 percent effectiveness, which was unanimously set as the success mark in the run-up to the vaccine development.
The mRNA competition, on the other hand, can score points with around 95 percent effectiveness - even with older people. This is not something that can be taken for granted: many vaccines work better on younger people. Your immune system is fitter, and the vaccination response is correspondingly greater.
But the AstraZeneca vaccine also offers advantages: It can be stored for longer periods at refrigerator temperatures - and it is considerably cheaper.
Dispute over delivery bottlenecks
But there are other problems: The EU is currently wrestling with manufacturers over deliveries. These were downgraded by AstraZeneca from 80 to 31 million for the first quarter. The EU is now massively pressing for compliance with the treaties. A solution to the conflict is not yet in sight.
(This post was updated following the approval of the vaccine on January 29, 2021.)
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