SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 7 February 2025, Friday |

Germany to make J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine available to all adults

Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn announced on Monday that his country is set to make Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine available to all adults, noting that they will be able to receive the dose on the advice of a doctor.

Last month, Europe’s drug regulator backed J&J’s vaccine after looking into cases of rare blood clotting in American adults who were administered a shot. But it left it up to the European Union’s member states to decide how to use it.

Berlin’s move to offer the J&J single-dose vaccine widely follows the lifting of curbs last week on the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The AstraZeneca jab had been earmarked for people aged over 60 after similar reports of very rare but sometimes deadly clotting events in younger people, with women disproportionately affected.

Spahn said the decisions reflect Germany’s progress in inoculating its seniors, pointing out that he expected everyone aged 60 and above who wanted to be vaccinated to be offered a dose by late May or early June.

The minister added that it made sense to make the dose more widely available with millions of J&J jabs slated to arrive later in the 2nd quarter of this year.

He forecast that 10 million jabs of the J&J shot were expected to arrive in Germany by the end of the 2nd quarter.

    Source:
  • Reuters