— Independent experts advising the World Health Organization about immunization recommended AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The recommendation stands even in countries facing coronavirus variants in their populations.
The WHO experts’ advice is used by health care officials worldwide. That approval could come after separate WHO group meetings to assess whether an emergency-use listing for the AstraZeneca vaccine is warranted.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is important because it forms the bulk of the stockpile acquired so far by the U.N.-backed effort known as COVAX, which aims to deploy coronavirus vaccines to people globally. COVAX plans to start shipping hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine worldwide later this month, but that is contingent on WHO approval for the shot, vaccine stocks and countries’ readiness to receive it.
But the vaccine has faced rising concerns. After an early study suggested that it might be less effective against a variant first seen in South Africa, the South African government scrambled to tweak its COVID-19 vaccination program.
The expert group’s recommendations about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed at Oxford University in Britain, resemble those issued earlier by the European Medicines Agency. Germany, France and Belgium, have said the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be used in older people, citing insufficient evidence.
The WHO’s chief scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, noted that the AstraZeneca shot requires storage at refrigerator temperatures — not the far colder temperatures required of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that the group has already recommended for use.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only one to receive a WHO emergency use listing.
The expert group noted that “preliminary analyses” showed the AstraZeneca vaccine had a reduced effectiveness against coronavirus variants that have emerged in Britain and South Africa. The studies were too small to produce definitive results and scientists think the vaccines might still be helpful in reducing severe disease, which would greatly slow the pandemic.
Source: WHO Press Release, News Agencies
