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The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that there is no reason to stop using the Covid-19 vaccine from the British laboratory AstraZeneca, after several countries suspended the application of the vaccine for fear of clots.
“AstraZeneca is an excellent vaccine, as are the others that are being used,” said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris in Geneva, noting that any concerns about the safety of the immunizer should be investigated.
Brazil today approved the definitive registration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, claiming that “the bottom line is that the benefits outweigh the risks.” The government also announced the purchase of 10 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, at a time when the country needs to accelerate vaccination to contain a second wave of the pandemic that has already left some 273,000 dead. Completing the device, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) approved the registration of the antiviral remdesivir.
Anvisa admitted that the AstraZeneca vaccine can cause disorders such as headaches and diarrhea and that “uncertainties” can lead “over time to adjust the manufacturing process”, also carried out in Brazil with the Fiocruz Foundation. But “the bottom line is that the benefits outweigh the risks,” the agency’s general manager for drugs, Gustavo Mendes, told a news conference. “There is no foreseeable risk to the health of the population related to the use of the vaccine,” he said.
Earlier this week, Austria stopped dosing a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines. The decision was made after a 49-year-old nurse died of “severe bleeding disorders” a few days after being immunized. Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg and Italy also stopped using the lot.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) suggested this Friday the addition of serious allergies to the list of possible side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, after the detection of such cases in the United Kingdom. However, the Amsterdam-based European Union (EU) regulatory agency indicated that the AstraZeneca vaccine could continue to be used.
In its statement today, the EMA said it “recommended an update to the product information that includes anaphylaxis and hypersensitivity (allergic reactions) as side effects.”
New confinement in Italy
Despite the hope that vaccines generate, Italy announced this Friday a new confinement with the aim of stopping the advance of covid-19. The government of the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, determined a closure from March 15 to April 6 in regions considered “red” and where the weekly number of infected exceeds 250 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Italy, which this week surpassed the barrier of 100,000 deaths caused by covid-19, is experiencing a sharp increase in infections and deaths, largely due to the British variant of the virus. The country started the vaccination campaign in late December, but distribution remains slow. So far, only 1.8 million people, out of a population of 60 million, have received two doses of the vaccine.
In the United States, by contrast, spectacular advances in immunization have given President Joe Biden reason to be optimistic that Americans will have a “good chance” to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. The country, which has made enough requests to vaccinate all adults by the end of May, will gradually remove age restrictions for all adults to be vaccinated before May 1.
Leaders from the United States, Japan, Australia and India have pledged to produce 1 billion doses of Covid vaccines in the latter country by the end of 2022.
Fears and approvals
The initiative will primarily manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s US vaccine, a single dose, which received emergency approval from the WHO today. “Each new safe and effective instrument against the disease is another step towards controlling the pandemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The organization has already approved the Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccines. With today’s approval, the vaccine can be part of the Covax program, created by the WHO, the Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi) and the Coalition for Innovation in Preparing for Epidemics (Cepi) to distribute vaccines to developing countries. Four Latin countries have already received doses through Covax, announced today the Pan American Health Organization, which are: Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru and Colombia.
The European Union also approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which could speed up immunization campaigns.
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