AstraZeneca vaccine not making headlines – Corona vaccination

The Netherlands has temporarily stopped vaccination with the manufacturer’s preparation. First, the Ministry of Health decided on Friday night not to vaccinate people under 60 years of age with the preparation AstraZeneca.

The triggers were cases of serious side effects in women. On Saturday, after consulting with the ministry, health authorities decided to suspend all AstraZeneca vaccines to avoid waste. Around 700 people in the age group over 60 should get vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the next few days. Since it could not be guaranteed that some people at each vaccination center would be able to use the complete vaccine from one vial, these appointments were temporarily canceled. The vaccination ban will apply until April 7.

The reason for the provisional suspension of vaccination are five reports of thrombosis in women between 25 and 65 years after vaccination. One person died. According to authorities, a connection to vaccination is still being investigated. So far, around 400,000 people in the Netherlands have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca preparation.

In the UK, after more than 18 million vaccinations with AstraZeneca, there were seven deaths from rare blood clots, according to the Medicines Agency. However, it is unclear whether these vaccine side effects occurred in a timely manner or by accident, UK agency head June Raine told the BBC. “The benefits of preventing Covid-19 infection and its complications continue to outweigh any risks, and everyone should get vaccinated if invited.”

Previously, the agency had reported 30 cases of rare blood clots in the 18.1 million AstraZeneca vaccines (as of March 24). Twenty-two cases of cerebral vein thrombosis and eight other types of thrombosis have been reported. However, here too the connection is unclear.

In total, more than 31 million people in the UK have received their primary vaccination, more than half of them with AstraZeneca. The infection situation in the country has improved significantly since then, the seven-day incidence was more recently 55 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The number of new daily deaths has also been greatly reduced.

In Germany, federal and state health ministers decided on Tuesday that the AstraZeneca preparation should generally only be injected to people over 60 years of age, unless the younger ones wish to do so at their own risk after clarifying with the doctor.

In Germany, 31 suspected cases of cerebral vein thrombosis had been reported earlier in the week after vaccination against AstraZeneca, as recently reported by the Paul Ehrlich Institute. So far, about three million people have received a starting dose of the drug. This means that in Germany, on the basis of one million people vaccinated, the suspicion of thrombosis of the cerebral veins was much more frequent than in Great Britain. The reasons for this can only be speculated.

In Austria, the National Vaccination Committee recommended the continuation of the vaccination program with AstraZeneca on Wednesday. Starting next Tuesday, the safety committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will deal with the issue, among other things.

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