German vax panel: Younger people should not get 2nd shot with Astra Zeneca

 Anyone who has initially only received one vaccination with the vaccine from Astra Zeneca and is younger than 60 years of age should receive a drug such as that from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna for the second. This is communicated by the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) in a revised recommendation. There is still no scientific knowledge about vaccinations with different means. However, "a dose of an mRNA vaccine 12 weeks after the first vaccination" is recommended until appropriate data are available. This class of vaccines includes those from Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna. The Astra-Zeneca preparation is a so-called vector vaccine.

Stiko chairman Thomas Mertens told Spiegel about this in an interview published on Thursday evening : "Animal experiment data show that the immune reaction is the same after heterologous vaccination. We still have to scientifically clarify how good the protection is in humans. I hope that data will be available soon. " The term "heterologous" refers to the administration of single doses of different vaccines.

Mertens also said that one can only speculate about the risk of being vaccinated twice with Astra Zeneca at the moment. "In my opinion, the obvious way out is not to try it at all, but to give an RNA vaccine as an alternative to be on the safe side."

The federal and state governments followed a recommendation by Stiko on Tuesday to use the Astra Zeneca remedy only for people over 60. With 2.7 million Astrazeneca doses administered, 31 suspected cases of a so-called cerebral vein thrombosis were reported. Nine cases were fatal. Experts suspect that the already very low risk only affects young people.

https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/corona-aktuell-rki-inzidenz-infektionen-1.5249833