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The Netherlands suspended the use of the coronavirus AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday, as a precaution, until March 28, implicitly, after “possible side effects” were reported in Denmark and Norway, without a confirmed link at this stage between receiving the vaccine and those effects.
“Based on new information, the Dutch Medicines Authority has advised, as a precautionary measure and pending further investigation, to suspend the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine” against Covid-19, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The statement quoted Health Minister Hugo de Jong as saying that “we must always be careful, and that is why it is prudent to press the Stop now button, as a precautionary measure.”
On Sunday, Ireland also suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing concerns related to causing blood clots, a problem facing a British-Swedish laboratory that cannot deliver the promised quantities to the European Union.
Several countries, including Denmark, Norway and Bulgaria, froze use of the vaccine made by the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant last week because of these concerns. However, the World Health Organization noted that it has not been confirmed that there is a causal relationship between receiving the vaccine and having blood clots.
The manufacturer and the European Medicines Agency have insisted that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe. An AstraZeneca spokesperson stated that “an analysis of our safety data, linked to reported cases of more than 17 million doses of vaccine administered, did not reveal any evidence of increased risk” of exposure to blood clots. “In fact, the numbers recorded for such events with the AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19 are lower than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population,” he added.
The only European vaccine that has been imported to poor countries.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is among the least expensive and accounts for the majority of vaccines that have been delivered to the world’s poorest countries under the WHO-supported Kovacs initiative, which aims to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines across the world. all the world.
Large-scale vaccination campaigns are crucial to ending the pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people worldwide.
Shortage of shipments
“The vaccination process with the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 has been temporarily postponed from the morning of Sunday, March 14,” a spokesman for the Irish Health Ministry told AFP.
The move came after the National Vaccination Advisory Committee in Ireland recommended suspending use of the vaccine, as a precaution, following “a statement from the Norwegian Medicines Agency of four new reports of dangerous clots in adults after vaccination. “.
“No link has yet been concluded” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots, Deputy Medical Director Ronan Glenn said in a statement, and action has been taken “pending further information.”
According to government data updated on Wednesday, around 570,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have so far been administered in Ireland, of which 109,000 are manufactured by AstraZeneca.
Ireland is currently under a third lockdown after witnessing a large number of infections and, in early January, became the country with the highest spread of infection in the world.
The death of a teacher
After a brief suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday following the death of a teacher who received the vaccine on Saturday, the Italian region of Piedmont decided, after verifications, to resume its use, discarding only one batch of preventive vaccines.
The director of the Italian Medicines Agency, Giorgio Palo, said that the AstraZeneca vaccine does not represent “any danger”, considering that its benefits are much greater than the risks, “asking to depend only on” scientific data “.
Norwegian officials said on Saturday that the country “has received several unpleasant reports of non-elderly people suffering a subcutaneous hemorrhage” after receiving the injection. The country also indicated that it had received “three other reports of severe clotting or brain hemorrhage in people who were not old enough to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
AstraZeneca’s reputation took another hit on Saturday when it announced a shortfall in deliveries to the European Union. The announcement was also a further blow to union leaders, who faced criticism for the faltering start of the vaccination campaign in the worst affected continent.
European Commissioner for Internal Market Affairs Thierry Breton said AstraZeneca’s statement was “unacceptable … or at least not understood.” However, he sought reassurance about the European vaccination plan, saying that “the delay in obtaining vaccines from AstraZeneca does not mean that we will delay the vaccination program in the first quarter of the year.”
On Sunday, the French government said it plans to transfer about 100 Covid-19 patients from intensive care units in the Paris region this week as hospitals struggle to cope with the increase in the number of cases.
Authorities hope to avoid a new lockdown affecting some 12 million people in and around the capital as they rush to step up the vaccination campaign, which has gotten off to a slow start.
Revive the economy
In Italy, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Sunday that the government expects new coronavirus restrictions imposed in three-quarters of the country to ease measures in the second half of spring. His comments came on the eve of the restrictions, which go into effect Monday and continue until April 6, and will cover the Easter holiday.
In Denmark, which has been under partial lockdown since late December, two people were arrested on the sidelines of a protest over the weekend over coronavirus restrictions in Copenhagen.
In Jordan, a hospital director and four of his assistants were arrested after lack of oxygen led to the death of seven Corona patients.
In Africa, Tunisia and Ethiopia launched vaccination campaigns on Saturday, but Ethiopian officials have also indicated a worrying increase in cases.
Vaccination campaigns are crucial to reviving the global economy, which has been affected by the epidemic, as travel has been restricted and people are forced to stay at home without a single country being immune from the repercussions.
Millions of people lost their jobs in the United States, the world’s largest economy, as those unable to work from home had to balance the risk of contracting the virus with the need to earn a living.
