The waiting game

Well folks, it looks like we were born at the wrong time. 

Pam and I were born in 1947 and so we are 74 this year which puts us into one of the most vulnerable groups for serious complications if we get infected with Covid 19. There are about 3 million of us in the 70-79 age group living in Spain. 

El Pais tells us that, for people who are now in their late sixties and seventies, there is a good chance they will not be getting their shots before mid-April at the earliest. That is because the government’s guidelines are prioritizing the 80-and-over population who are getting the Pfizer Biontech vaccine and under 65s who are getting  the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

There is a chance that the age limit for use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be extended at a Tuesday meeting of the Public Health Committee. 

However, if the Public Health Committee decides to keep the 65 age limit in place, most of the people over the age of 80 will have to be vaccinated before the 70-to-79 age group starts getting calls for appointments. And those between 65 and 69 years of age will have to wait even longer, until most of the individuals in the 70-to-79 group have been inoculated.

The problem arose because there was insufficient evidence showing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to be effective in older age groups. However, further studies have proved that the Anglo Swedish vaccine is equally effective for all age groups and the WHO and EMA now recommend removing the age limit.