Germany has already decided: who is under 60 and has already taken the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 you should take the second dose of a vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna. This was the recommendation that the German vaccination committee sent to the Government and that those responsible for health portfolios, both at national and regional level, have already announced.
In Germany, as in Portugal, it was decided that the AstraZeneca / Oxford University vaccine should not be administered to anyone under 60 years of age. The European Medicines Agency found an association between vaccination with this brand and the appearance of blood clots with low levels of circulating platelets – a very rare adverse reaction, but more common in younger people.
It remained unclear what would be the procedure to be taken on those who had already taken the British vaccine before that decision was imposed on 30 March. The answer came after a government meeting: the second dose must be from another pharmacist authorized in the country and can only be administered 12 weeks after the first inoculation, as the vaccination commission had suggested.
Klaus Holetschek, Minister of Health in Bavaria, guaranteed that “the solution that was found will offer a good level of protection“. Although this is the belief of several specialists (including here in Portugal, such as the Observer had already found out), clinical trials that prove the safety and efficacy of this technique are still ongoing.
