Health Rejects That People Under 60 Can Be Vaccinated Earlier If They Choose AstraZeneca Drug | Society

The Ministry of Health on Wednesday rejected that people under 60 can be vaccinated earlier if they voluntarily choose to do so with the AstraZeneca drug for people under 60. This option has been excluded for the time being. The sixth update of the Vaccination strategy against Covid-19 in Spain, published Wednesday morning, explicitly rejects it for the first time, at the request of several communities, such as Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid.

The document approved on Tuesday by the Public Health Commission, made up of technicians from the Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities, is blunt: “It should be remembered again that the choice of vaccine cannot be determined by individual elections, but that rather should be based on efficacy and indication for different population groups. It also does not seem appropriate at this point to offer the Vaxzevria vaccine [AstraZeneca] to people under the age of 60 who want to be vaccinated voluntarily. The proposal may contradict not only the ethical principles on which the strategy itself is based, but also, if there is still not enough information available to make the most appropriate decision, the value of informed consent as a guarantee for an autonomous decision . are highly debatable ”.

This was a possibility raised by some regional governments following the committee’s decision to restrict the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 60 years old, after it was determined that the very rare side effects of venous thrombi have mainly occurred in humans under the age of 60. of this age.

The document adds, “In a context of scarce resources and where priority must be given, vaccination cannot be determined by individual choice.” The text states that administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine “with informed consent” to this’ it may convey the acceptance within the strategy that the different vaccines are the choice of the individuals. In the current context, this would run counter to the ethical principles on which the strategy is based ”.

It also currently denies the possibility of extending the period between the first and second dose in messenger RNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna), and states that the first available doses of Janssen (single injection medicine) will go to people between the ages of 70 and 79 years old, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

In this way, the vaccination plan looks like this: messenger RNA vaccines are intended for people over the age of 70 and groups with diseases that make them more vulnerable to severe covid or die. Janssen’s, which has just been divided among the autonomous communities, will in principle apply to Septuagenarians. Those between 60 and 69 will receive those from AstraZeneca until other vaccines are available to them.

The document does not state what will happen to people under 60 who have already received a first dose of AstraZeneca. For them, the vaccination is being suspended in the absence of a study that the Carlos III Health Institute has just started to determine whether it is safe and effective for the second injection to come from Pfizer, something some countries are already doing, such as Germany. Regardless, the second dose would be given from the twelfth week and the first doses of AstraZeneca were given out on February 8, so the deadline for the first people to receive it was not met until the beginning of May.