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Germany, France and Italy announced on Monday that they would pause on AstraZeneca Covid-19 fire after several countries reported possible serious side effects, routing the already struggling vaccination campaign from Europe.
Denmark and Norway stopped getting vaccinated last week after reporting isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts. Iceland and Bulgaria followed suit, and Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.
Spain will stop using the vaccine for at least 15 days, Cadena Ser radio reported, citing anonymous sources.
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Actions taken by some of Europe’s largest and most populous countries will exacerbate concerns about the slow roll-out of vaccines in the region, which has been plagued by shortages due to vaccine production issues, including those of AstraZeneca.
Germany warned last week it was facing a third wave of infections, Italy is stepping up lockdowns and hospitals in the Paris region are on the verge of overloading.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that although the risk of blood clots is low, it cannot be ruled out.
“This is a professional decision, not a political one,” Spahn said, adding that he was following a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the vaccine regulatory body in Germany.
France has said it is suspending use of the vaccine pending an assessment by the EU’s drug regulator scheduled for Tuesday. Italy said its shutdown was a “precautionary and temporary measure” pending the regulator’s decision.
Austria and Spain have stopped using particular lots, and prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont previously seized 393,600 doses following the death of a man hours after being vaccinated . It was the second region to do so after Sicily, where two people had died shortly after being shot.
The World Health Organization has called on countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide.
“To date, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem serious illnesses from the virus,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier.
The UK said it had no concerns, while Poland said the benefits outweighed all the risks.
The EMA said as of March 10, a total of 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported among nearly 5 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Economic Area, which links 30 European countries.
Michael Head, a senior researcher in global health at the University of Southampton, said the decisions by France, Germany and others seemed confusing.
“The data we have suggests that the number of adverse events related to blood clots is the same (and possibly even lower) in vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated populations,” he said, adding that stopping a vaccination program had consequences.
“This is causing delays in protecting people and the potential for increased vaccine reluctance, from people who have seen the headlines and understandably worried. There are no signs of any data to really back up yet. these decisions. “
“Unusual” symptoms
AstraZeneca shot was among the first and cheapest to be developed and launched in volume since the coronavirus was first identified in central China at the end of 2019 and is expected to be the mainstay of the programs immunization programs in much of the developing world.
WHO said its advisory group is reviewing reports on the shooting and will release its findings as soon as possible. But he said it was unlikely to change his recommendations, issued last month, for widespread use, including in countries where the South African variant of the virus could reduce its effectiveness.
The EMA also said there was no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination and that the number of blood clots reported was not higher than seen in the general population.
The handful of side effects reported in Europe have shaken vaccination programs already under pressure due to slow rollouts and vaccine skepticism in some countries.
The Netherlands said on Monday it had seen 10 cases of possible notable adverse side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine, hours after the government suspended its vaccination program following reports of potential side effects in other countries.
Denmark reported “very unusual” symptoms in a 60-year-old citizen who died of a blood clot after receiving the vaccine, the same phrase Norway used on Saturday about three people under the age of 50 which it said , were treated in hospital.
“It was an unusual development of the disease around the death that made the Danish Medicines Agency react,” the agency said in a statement Sunday evening.
One of three health workers hospitalized in Norway after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine had died, health officials said on Monday, but there was no evidence that the vaccine was the cause.
AstraZeneca said earlier that it had conducted a study of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which showed no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Investigations of potential side effects are complicated because the history of each case and the circumstances surrounding a death or illness are examined.
The long-awaited results of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial on 30,000 people in the United States are currently being reviewed by independent observers to determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective, a senior US official said on Monday.
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