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Many countries suspend vaccination against AstraZeneca face “crisis of confidence” in Europe
International war “epidemic” operation
◎ Li Shan, our reporter in Germany
On March 15, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Health announced that it would discontinue use of the new corona vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. More than a dozen countries in Europe have suspended use of the vaccine on suspicion that vaccination is related to cerebral venous thrombosis. AstraZeneca is facing a serious crisis of confidence in Europe, and the impact of monitoring may affect dozens of countries around the world that are receiving the vaccine, and may even hamper global actions against the epidemic.
Thrombosis case raises serious doubts in Europe
A spokesman for the German Federal Ministry of Health said that the decision to suspend vaccination against AstraZeneca in Germany was in accordance with the latest recommendations from the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI). As Germany and other European countries have successively reported cases of cerebral venous thrombosis shortly after vaccination with AstraZeneca, the PEI responsible for the approval of the German vaccine believes that further research is needed. The director of the institute, Zichutek, stressed that of the seven cases of cerebral venous thrombosis related to vaccination in Germany, three are fatal.
Countries like Austria, which previously reported deaths, only suspended a certain batch of vaccination. Denmark is the first EU country to completely discontinue vaccination against AstraZeneca. The reason was that a 60-year-old woman in the country died of a blood clot after vaccination. Subsequently, Norway also reported the death of a nurse who was less than 50 years old after receiving the vaccine. Italy reported that three people died after being vaccinated. The Netherlands reported 10 cases of “thrombosis or embolism” after vaccination.
The side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine have caused serious doubts in European countries. But so far, it is not clear if the above cases are directly related to the vaccine. Germany’s federal Health Minister Spand said: “So far, the number of people vaccinated by AstraZeneca in Germany has exceeded 1.6 million, and there have been 7 case reports related to this type of cerebral venous thrombosis. It’s a very low risk. But if it’s really related to vaccination, it’s a higher than average risk. “
The focus remains on the safety of the vaccine.
The British government has endorsed the AstraZeneca vaccine, calling it “safe and effective”. An AstraZeneca spokesperson said they reviewed the safety data for reported cases of more than 17 million doses of the vaccine, but there is no evidence that the risk of thrombosis has increased. Andrew Pollard, the lead investigator for the Oxford vaccine trial, said: “There is very reassuring evidence that there is no increase in blood clots in the UK.” So far, most of the AstraZeneca vaccines in Europe have been injected in the UK.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it will investigate “whether and how the new information affects the authorization of vaccines” and will hold a special meeting on the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 18. Previously, Marco Cavalieri, head of the EMA’s department of vaccination strategy, said there is no evidence that the vaccine poses a serious health risk. “We believe that there is no problem in continuing to use this vaccine for vaccination.” Almost 5 million people in Europe have been vaccinated with the vaccine, but only about 30 cases of blood clotting dysfunction have been reported after vaccination with AstraZeneca.
World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman Margaret Harris said there is currently no evidence that the blood clotting problem in European AstraZeneca vaccinators is caused by the vaccine. People “must continue to do vaccination work to save lives and prevent serious disease.” Sumia Swaminesen, chief scientist at WHO, said: “We don’t want people to panic.” .Data and maintain “close contact” with EMA.
The vaccine crisis affects global actions against the epidemic
Although many European countries are currently only suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, waiting for the EMA to review the relevant cases and draw a conclusion. The suspension may be short-lived, but it has made countries’ already difficult vaccination plans even more confusing. The EU ordered 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for 27 member states Due to bottlenecks in production, around 30 million doses were delivered in the first quarter. Currently, Germany has received 3.43 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Due to the low willingness to vaccinate, there are still 2.2 million doses to be vaccinated, which represents about half of the existing vaccines in Germany. Following the suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the various vaccination centers in Germany had to stop their operations and reorganize the vaccine storage, transport and vaccination plan.
The AstraZeneca vaccine crisis may also lead to further global vaccine supply shortages, and may even reinvent the global access mechanism for corona vaccines (COVAX). The new corona vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has long attracted a lot of attention. In addition to being stored in normal refrigerators, it also has a low price and huge production capacity advantages. Therefore, COVAX strongly favors the AstraZeneca vaccine. At the end of 2020, AstraZeneca announced that it will produce up to 3 billion doses of vaccine in 2021. This is of great importance for the global demand for the new corona vaccine, which may reach 14 billion doses. However, with more than 355 million doses of the new global vaccination crown, more than 130 countries have not received a single dose of the vaccine.
What deserves more attention is the crisis of confidence that people have in AstraZeneca vaccines. Currently, some 70 countries around the world have approved the emergency use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and hundreds of millions of people are preparing to receive the vaccine. Even if regulatory authorities quickly clarified that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not linked to cases of thrombosis, its far-reaching social impact has already been caused. Global vaccination of the new crown generally adopts a voluntary method. As more and more vaccines are approved, people will unconsciously evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each vaccine and “vote with their feet” to make decisions. Only then, the global vaccination will have to last longer.
