The Germans disagreed with you. They seemed very concerned with efficacies. Their concern about Astra zeneca put them behind the eightball.
I've never had a discussion with "The Germans", or anyone else, about the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine or any concern they may have, or had, about it.
I
am involved in a discussion about the three currently available vaccines in the United States and the currently available data on their efficacy and effectiveness relative to each other and the differences in the way in which the various clinical trials were conducted for
those vaccines.
All three are highly efficacious and effective at providing protection against serious to critical illness and death. All three are relatively scarce in availability relative to the adult population that would benefit from being vaccinated with
any of them. The wise choice is to take whichever is available to you as early as possible rather than take the risk of becoming infected, and the concomitant risk of serious illness or death, while waiting for a specific vaccine to become available to you.
It's difficult to make anything other than broad comparisons between the vaccine choices from Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson / J&J) because they were tested at different times and in different places with different variants of the virus. Comparison is also difficult as the currently available data is derived from the limited clinical trials conducted prior to Emergency Use Authorization. Due to the immediate need for a means of slowing the spread of the virus, they were put into use under Emergency Use Authorization without lengthy clinical trials to produce more granular data. For instance, the J&J vaccine was tested in Brazil and South Africa at a time when variants of the virus were widespread and was shown to be protective against those variants. That data is limited at present for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Much more will be learned over time regarding the various vaccines as they are administered over a wider population. However, what
is known is that all three have demonstrated highly effective protection against serious to critical illness from COVID-19 and as a result reducing deaths.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/05/how-the-different-covid-vaccines-will-handle-variantsIn the case of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson / J&J) vaccine, which is the principle point of discussion in the Q&A article that I linked and the few comments that I made regarding it, the FDA conclusion was...
Efficacy against severe/critical COVID-19 (key secondary efficacy endpoint):• Onset ≥14 days after vaccination: 76.7% (54.6, 89.1)
• Onset ≥28 days after vaccination: 85.4% (54.2, 96.9)
Reduction in COVID-19 requiring medical intervention:• Onset ≥14 days after vaccination: 2 in vaccine group vs. 29 in placebo group
• Onset ≥28 days after vaccination: 0 in vaccine group vs. 16 in placebo group
Whatever conversation is happening inside your head regarding Germany and the AstraZeneca vaccine is not one I am a part of nor do I wish to be. Take that discussion to "The Germans".