German government debunks reports of 8% vaccine efficacy for elderly
German newspaper Handelsblatt sparked alarm with a report that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is just 8% effective among over 65s.
But the German Federal Ministry of Health told Full Fact that it “cannot confirm recent reports of reduced efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine," adding: “At first glance, it seems that two things have been confused in the reports:About 8% of the subjects in the AstraZeneca efficacy trial were between 56 and 69 years of age, and only 3-4% were over 70 years of age.
"However, this does not imply an efficacy of only 8% in the elderly.”
The claim has also been denied by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca themselves.
And in December, research published in the Lancet showed that older adults who received the vaccine showed a similar immune response as younger adults.
Good information saves lives. But false claims about vaccines have spread far and wide, threatening to prolong the pandemic and risk even greater loss of life.
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In a piece in the Somerset County Gazette, local MP David Warburton set out his reasons for voting against the latest lockdown. However, many of the claims in support of his argument are incorrect.
Among the claims was that the UK’s mortality rate “remains much the same as others.” But the same week the article was published, Our World in Data reported that the UK had the fourth highest rate of Covid-19 death in the world. John Hopkins University has said the UK had the eighth highest since the pandemic began.
Mr Warburton also claimed that “for the under 60s, there is a 1-in-300,000 chance of death.” This is very wrong. Office for National Statistics data shows that 5,370 under-60s had died with Covid-19 on their death certificate at the time the article was written.
If the chance of death was 1 in 300,000 as claimed, that would mean more than 1.5 billion people under the age of 60 have been infected in England and Wales. But there are only 54.5 million people aged 64 or younger in the UK.
The pandemic has exposed dangerous gaps in public data and communication systems.
Following years of inaction and under-investment, attempts to contain the virus were hampered by incomplete data—particularly on care homes and the allocation of PPE.
Our second annual report, supported by the Nuffield Foundation, sets out ten urgent recommendations to restore public trust, amid vaccine rollouts and surging misinformation.
They include a Parliamentary inquiry, as well as clear commitments to long-term funding for better government data, infrastructure and systems.
Last August, we questioned research conducted by King’s College London (KCL) that reported around one in six people said they would refuse a Covid-19 vaccine.
We pointed out that the way the question was worded meant some people who said they were unlikely to take a vaccine may have responded that way because they did not expect to be offered a vaccine, rather than refusing an available one.
The team at KCL agreed that the wording of the original question may have been ambiguous, and has now completed additional research. The new study found that people gave similar answers no matter which way the question was phrased.
This suggests that, in the summer, about one in six people probably were likely to refuse it, after all.
