MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2021) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that he rejects the conclusions of German experts who have said that a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford should not be given to people aged 65 or above.
On Tuesday, the German newspaper Handelsblatt published a report which claimed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had shown to be only eight percent effective among elderly residents. Two days later, media outlets reported that Germany's vaccine committee issued a recommendation telling elderly residents not to get the vaccine.
Speaking during a visit to Scotland, Johnson told broadcasters that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was "very good and efficacious" across all age groups, adding that he did not agree with Germany's decision.
The prime minister spoke during a visit to a facility in Livingston run by French vaccine producer Valneva, which announced earlier in the day that it would begin production with the aim of supplying 60 million vaccine doses by the end of the year.
During a government press briefing on Wednesday, Johnson said that he expects that the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to work "very well."
The UK has a total of 360 million COVID-19 vaccine doses on order from seven different suppliers. This figure includes 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
