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LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine
provides reassuring immune responses in elderly people even if
data on the precise level of protection is patchy, Public Health
England said on Thursday after Germany recommended the shot was
only given to under-65s.
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine should only be given to
people aged between 18 and 64, Germany's vaccine committee said
in a draft recommendation, a day ahead of a decision by European
regulators on whether to approve the drugmaker's shot.
Britain is already rolling out AstraZeneca's shot after it
became the first country to approve the vaccine, developed with
Oxford University, in December. It is also rolling out a shot
developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
"Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are safe
and provide high levels of protection against COVID-19,
particularly against severe disease," Mary Ramsay, Head of
Immunisations at PHE said in a statement.
"There were too few cases in older people in the AstraZeneca
trials to observe precise levels of protection in this group,
but data on immune responses were very reassuring."
Britain has given more than 7 million people their first
dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and is racing to vaccinate the most
vulnerable groups - including over 70s - by mid-February.
PHE said that using AstraZeneca's shot to vaccinate the
elderly would save lives.
"The risk of severe disease and death increase exponentially
with age – the priority is to vaccinate as many vulnerable
people as possible with either vaccine, to protect more people
and save more lives," Ramsay said.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Sarah Young)