He refused the AstraZeneca vaccine and is now fighting for his life

The experience of one patient was decisive for a group of physicians in the Netherlands make a concise call: use all available vaccines.

It all started with the case of a person who, for fear of a possible thrombus, rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine. Now he is in serious condition, admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for coronavirus at the Zuyderland medical center in the south-eastern Netherlands.

The doctors themselves, witnesses of this situation, recounted what had happened in a letter addressed to the acting Minister of Health, Hugo de Jonge: “The virus had attacked him and it could have been avoided. With your approval, we share the result of your lung scan. You don’t have to be a lung specialist to recognize the devastation that has taken place. “

// UNICEF and PAHO Celebrate Arrival of AstraZeneca Vaccines from Covax Mechanism

Professionals signing the open letter warn: “We have treated over 3,000 coronavirus patients, and as you chat with experts about reopening the company step by step to offer perspective, we see the huge consequences of this disease everyday”.

“The numbers that show the the benefits of mass vaccination are enormous. They don’t really lie. So let’s get top speed nationwide! Let people choose if they want to avoid a situation like the one our patient is in. Let’s work together to make sure our employees are properly equipped to continue their exceptionally demanding job of protecting them with a vaccine today, ”they ask in the letter.

And they add that “we are seriously considering offering the few hundred vaccines from AstraZeneca who are still waiting in the refrigerator for employees and doctors from next Monday ”. A threat so that cases like that of this patient who for not having been vaccinated are now admitted to intensive care fighting for his life will not recur.

Astrazeneca vaccine rejection

The Netherlands have in stock 80,000 doses Janssen is awaiting a scientific recommendation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on its safety and possible relationship to six cases of unusual blood clotting in the United States, the only country to have used the single-dose vaccine before.

In addition, and after the EMA alerted of a “possible link” of AstraZeneca with dozens of very rare cases of thromboembolism in people who received the injection, the Netherlands decided not to use it. than in people over 60 years old, an age group where the preparation has shown fewer cases of this side effect.

After the debates on AstraZeneca and the disparity in criteria between European countries, 42% of those over 60 still unvaccinated in the Netherlands refused to be vaccinatedas revealed by an I&O survey commissioned by Dutch television we.

The scene is repeated in other parts of the world. On April 8, more than half of those called in to receive the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Madrid did not show up for their shift. The day before, only at the nurse at Isabel Zendal hospital, 10,046 people had been vaccinated. Last Thursday, there were barely 5,679, almost half. The reason for this desertion is fear.