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PARIS — The AstraZeneca vaccine should only be administered to those older than 55 years of age, according to the latest review by the French national health agency unveiled on Friday.
The authority’s recommendation adds to the confusion in the country just a day after French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that AstraZeneca vaccinations would restart following advice from the European Medicines Agency that the vaccine was “safe and effective.”
Castex himself, who is just 55, is due to receive the jab Friday afternoon in an effort by the government to restore confidence in the vaccine.
The health authority justified the decision by pointing out that all three French patients who have suffered blood clots after receiving the vaccine were younger than 55 years old.
To this day, there is no established causality between the vaccine and these blood clots, but health authorities have erred on the side of extreme caution in Europe.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) once again Thursday cleared the vaccine for use without age limits, describing it as “safe and effective.”
This is the third time French authorities have changed their recommendation about how to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In early February it had recommended it for use only for those younger than 65 years of age. Then in early March, it reversed course and recommended it for use in the general adult population.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced France was suspending the use of the vaccine, “out of an abundance of caution,” after Germany and other European countries did too. The German health ministry said it suspended it following three deaths from unexplained blood clots in some patients who had been vaccinated.
Since then, the EMA cleared the vaccine again.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to store and administer than other vaccines and is supposed to be a central pillar of efforts to speed up a lagging vaccination roll-out in France.
More than 50 percent of the French population doesn’t want to get the AstraZeneca jab, according to a poll by Odoxa for Backbone Consulting, Le Figaro and franceinfo.
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