Angela Merkel says she won't take AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine because she's too old.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she won't take AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine because she's too old.
The pace of Europe's vaccine rollout has slowed behind that of the United Kingdom. People have reportedly refused to take AstraZeneca's vaccine after European leaders cast doubt on its effectiveness.
Merkel, who is 66, was asked by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine whether she would receive a dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine to counter a perception in Europe that the vaccine is ineffective.
The chancellor said she would not get the vaccine because it had not been approved for people over 65 in Germany. "I am 66 years old and do not belong to the recommended group for AstraZeneca," she told the paper.
Recent trials in Scotland have linked AstraZeneca's vaccine with a dramatic drop in the risk of hospitalization among older people.
More than 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine are sitting in storage in Germany, while healthcare workers have administered only 240,000 doses, Thomas Mertens, who chairs Germany's standing commission on vaccines, said this week, the New Scientist reported.
That's very interesting...
I wonder if she's received a "better" alternative vaccine--obviously it would be contrary to the spirit of the EU's vaccination program and seen as extremely shady, but of course, I'm sure that elites at that level across Europe (whether from wealth or political power or both) can fairly easily obtain one or two doses of whatever vaccine they want. Alternatively, I know that she's very religious, though generally quite quiet about it, and of course some Christians across the world have reservations about receiving vaccinations, but I'd really doubt many of those types would be found in the mainstream German Lutheran churches.
