Newsday - AstraZeneca

Doctors and public health officials in Germany have been calling on people to take the AstraZeneca vaccine in the fight against coronavirus.

German healthcare facilities have reported several hundred thousand AstraZeneca vials sitting unused and say that many people aren't attending scheduled appointments to take it.

It's thought the slow take-up may be linked to official guidance last month that the AstraZeneca vaccine was recommended only for people between aged 18 to 64 years. But doctors say this is likely to be updated and the vaccine is safe and effective. The vaccine also has the benefit over Pfizer that it doesn't need to be deep-freeze storage, which means it can be transported to vulnerable communities.

Carsten Watzl is general secretary of the German Society for Immunology.

"Because the vaccine is only licensed for up to 64 year olds, we're vaccinating mostly the healthcare workers... so the healthcare workers get the impression that they're being offered the second choice vaccine... We just have to wait till the trial has more data, and then I'm very confident that this vaccine will also be suitable for the over 64 year olds."