BERLIN (Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s vaccine against the coronavirus is effective and Germans should take it if it is offered, the head of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases said on Friday.
Institute head Lothar Wieler told a news conference that as more data came in from countries like Britain and Israel where there had already been extensive vaccination, the clearer it became that AstraZeneca’s product was very effective, just like rival products from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.
A study of 500,000 vaccinations in Scotland found that the vaccine had reduced hospitalisations by 94%, he said, calling that result “fantastic”.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Paul Carrel)
