Spain has made a radical U-turn on the vaccination strategy for Covid-19 by announcing Astra-Zeneca will not be employed on patients under 60 years.
This may be elevated to 65 years later today.
The announcement leaves in limbo some two million essential workers who have already received the first dose of Astra-Zeneca.
Spain, along with many other European countries has announced the move following the latest analysis by the European Agency of Medicines presented yesterday.
The Agency has certified that there is some connection between the vaccination and the “strange thrombosis” detected in relatively young people who have been inoculated recently.
The Agency does not know the cause of the thrombosis and insists that the benefits of the vaccination far outweigh the risks.
The benefits of the Astra-Zeneca are higher for older people because the probability of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19 heavily outweigh the probabilities of side effects of the vaccine.
The Ministry of Health is currently studying whether to give a second dose of a different vaccine to the two million essential workers, something not considered advisory up to this point, or leave the workers with one dose which gives 70% protection against the virus.
