Some in France, Germany, UK, avoid AstraZeneca jab for Pfizer: Reports

People receiving vaccines in the UK, France, and Germany are complicating the rollouts by trying to insist on receiving a particular shot, according to reports.

In continental Europe, officials have pointed to unfilled appointments and empty vaccination hubs when the AstraZeneca vaccine is on offer.

The resistance appears to stem from trial data that suggested AstraZeneca's vaccine was less effective than the one from Pfizer, the other widely used vaccine in Europe.

In the UK, there are anecdotal reports of some people insisting on the Pfizer jab and others pushing for the AstraZeneca one, citing its local credentials.

Here's what's happening:

• In Germany, hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca shot have gone unused, Yahoo News reported. Fewer than 200 people were showing up for 3,800 daily appointments at centers in Berlin offering only the AstraZeneca shot, The Times of London reported on Monday.
• Officials in Austria and Bulgaria have also described public resistance to the AstraZeneca vaccine, Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday.
• In Italy, teachers and police officers have expressed concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• In France, officials staggered vaccinations for health workers after several workers who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine called in sick over flu-like side effects. Last month, President Emmanuel Macron expressed doubt about the vaccine's effectiveness.
• In Sweden, two regions temporarily suspended the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccines after hospital staffers who had received one jab reported mild side effects.

In the UK, the picture is more complicated. The Washington Post reported that some Britons were canceling and rebooking vaccination appointments to secure either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca shot based on rumors and insider information about which centers have which doses.

The outlet reported that some people were insisting on getting the AstraZeneca shot because AstraZeneca is jointly headquartered in the UK and developed its vaccine with the University of Oxford.

A doctor told the BBC on Sunday that while his medical colleagues had a slight preference for Pfizer's vaccine, his patients tended to prefer the Oxford-AstraZeneca "made-in-Britain" vaccine.

Differences in data on efficacy

The dynamic appears to be shaped by data from the phase-three trials of both vaccines.

Late last year, AstraZeneca announced that its vaccine was 62% effective after two full doses in its trial but 90% effective after a half-dose and a full dose, raising questions about its trials, as Insider's Isabella Jibilian reported.

British regulators now say the vaccine's efficacy is 70%, while the European Medicines Agency says it's 60%, The Post reported.

Compared with the 95% efficacy that Pfizer found in trials of its vaccine, it might seem that the AstraZeneca vaccine does not perform as well.

But Andrew Pollard, a scientist who led the AstraZeneca vaccine development, told The Post that the figures were not directly comparable.

"Unless you run the trials head-to-head, you don't really know whether a 95 percent figure on trial and 62 percent in another trial mean the same thing," Pollard told The Post.

Results from such a head-to-head trial in the UK should be available soon, Sarah Gilbert, another leader of the vaccine's development, told The Post.

The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, where Pollard is a lead scientist, has said the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines both "give very high protection against severe disease" and "have good safety profiles."

Pollard told The Post that he would personally "have whichever vaccine offered."

Real-world data in countries where the vaccines have been rolled out, such as Israel and the UK, is starting to provide more clarity on the vaccines' effectiveness.