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Concerns about the safety of AstraZeneca have been raised when blood clots or brain hemorrhage have been reported in vaccinated people. A small number of deaths have also been reported.
However, AstraZeneca and British medical experts said there was no evidence that blood clots were caused by vaccines, or that they were more common in vaccinated people.
What happened to the AstraZeneca vaccine?
Denmark was the first country to stop vaccinating against the coronavirus with AstraZeneca last week, following reports of blood clots in some patients; one of them died ten days after the COVID-19 injection due to a marked increase in blood clotting.
Danish health authorities reported that vaccination with the vaccine had been suspended for at least two weeks pending a case study, noting that “there is currently no conclusion that there is a link between the vaccine and blood clots.” .
Later, Denmark, Iceland, Bulgaria, Thailand and the Congo followed suit, and this week AstraZeneca also discontinued vaccines for European heavyweights such as Germany and France. Italy, the Netherlands and Spain announced similar decisions on Monday, and other countries continued their announcements on Tuesday, from Latvia to Sweden.
It is true that many national health authorities have emphasized that stopping vaccination with AstraZeneca is only a preventive measure, France 24 reports.
“We always have to be insured, so it is now appropriate to press the pause button as a precautionary measure,” said Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge.
In response to the discontinuation of its own vaccine, AstraZeneca said it had carefully reviewed all available data from the 17 million people vaccinated with COVID-19 in Europe. According to the company, “there is no evidence of an increased risk of clots” in any age group or gender in any country.
Andrews Pollard, head of the Oxford vaccine group, said on Monday there was no link between the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and blood clots.
Pollard said there is “reliable evidence that there has been no increase in blood clots here in the United Kingdom (UK), where the highest doses of this vaccine have been administered in Europe so far.”
“It is very important that there is no problem of people giving up the vaccine in droves, and the huge known risks of COVID-19 need to be balanced and it is recognized that based on data verified by regulators, there are still no signs of danger, “he told BBC radio.
UK Prime Minister Defends AstraZeneca Vaccine
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday that the AstraZeneca vaccine against the pandemic coronavirus was safe to use.
“The vaccine is safe and extremely effective,” the prime minister wrote in The Times.
“It is produced in many places, from India to the United States, including the United Kingdom, and is used around the world,” he added.
The vaccine was developed by AstraZeneca, a British and Swedish company, in collaboration with the University of Oxford. More than 11 million have already been injected into the UK. dosage of this preparation. No serious problems were reported.
Johnson told reporters on Monday that the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was “one of the strictest and most experienced regulators in the world.”
“They see no reason to stop the vaccination program … either because of any of the vaccines currently in use,” the prime minister said.
“They believe they are extremely effective in reducing not only the number of hospitalizations, but also the risk of serious illness and mortality,” he noted.
“We remain unquestioned about this program, and it is great that it is being rolled out so quickly across the UK,” added Johnson.
Is there evidence that the vaccine is the culprit?
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has stated that “there is no reason to believe that vaccination has caused such conditions”, adding that the incidence of thromboembolism in people vaccinated with Astrazeneca is not higher than in the unvaccinated population.
In the United Kingdom, where 11 million were injected. AstraZeneca vaccine doses, more than in any other country, have been reported to cause blood clots in approximately eleven people after injecting this vaccine. In no case has the vaccine been shown to cause this condition.
Some doctors point out that because the most vulnerable people were vaccinated first at the start of the vaccination campaign, these vaccinated people generally already had health problems, making it difficult to determine if the vaccine is responsible.
Blood clots that form in the hands, feet, or elsewhere can sometimes loosen and travel to the heart, brain, or lungs, causing strokes, heart attacks, or a fatal blockage of blood flow.
Why have so many countries stopped vaccinating with AstraZeneeca?
In any case, when vaccines are produced on a large scale, researchers hope to report certain serious health problems or deaths simply because the vaccines vaccinate millions of people, and health problems can be expected in such a large group of people. . Ultimately, the vast majority of these cases are not related to the vaccine, but because COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental, researchers must investigate all possibilities of unwanted side effects from the vaccine. These vaccines are considered experimental because they were only developed last year, so there is no long-term data on any of them.
“People die every day and we have more than 300 million people around the world. People vaccinated, many of them will die for other reasons,” said Dr. Mariangela Simao WHO Deputy Director-General.
Did the parties misunderstand this?
As health correspondent Nick Triggle writes for the BBC, the key question to ask yourself is: is it a cause or a coincidence? Would these blood clots continue to form?
“The 37 published cases are fewer than you might expect. Furthermore, there is no convincing biological explanation for why the vaccine could cause a blood clot. That is why the WHO and the UK argue that there is no evidence of such link. And the EVA recommends that the vaccine be continued, “says the BBC on Triggle.
Therefore, according to him, it is not surprising that the decisions of individual countries to suspend the use of AstraZeneca vaccine stocks upset the experts. And this is not the first time that European countries have taken a cautious stance on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Germany, France, and other countries did not initially recommend vaccination of people over 65 years of age. These recommendations have now been withdrawn, but their effects still seem to be being felt.
Now that AstraZeneca’s vaccine stocks are running low, it can have fatal consequences. France, Germany and other major European countries have higher infection rates than the UK, and all run the risk of making the situation worse before it finally improves, the BBC reports.
Expert: The risk of blood clots from COVID-19 far outweighs the risk from vaccines
The risk of blood clots from COVID-19 “far outweighs” any potential risk from vaccination, one expert said.
Professor Anthony Harnden, Vice Chairman of the British Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JVIK), told Good Morning Britain television show that “around £ 11 million has been used in the UK. Oxford / AstraZeneca doses of coronavirus vaccine, and experts “did not notice any signs of more frequent clot formation” among vaccinated people than those who are normally recorded, The Telegraph reports.
He stressed that both the JVIK, the European Medicines Agency (EVA), the British Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency and the World Health Organization state that the vaccine is safe.
Professor Harnden noted that “we really need to keep a close eye on this situation” but added: “It is really important to remember that COVID-19 is a vascular disease that causes blood clots throughout the body.”
“Therefore, the risk of blood clots from COVID-19 far outweighs any potential threat from vaccines,” he emphasized.
Minister: Europe “will never be vaccinated” if it continues on this path
Speaking on local radio Tuesday morning, Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroueke said: “People who have been vaccinated are in much better health than those who have not been vaccinated. Especially among the elderly. We will not leave the elderly population. “
“We have just launched a large-scale vaccination campaign. They will be vulnerable if infected. We know that our vaccines provide good protection against this virus. And we want to protect them. Especially now that the pandemic is gaining momentum again. “
“Of course, it is very important that vaccines are safe. That is essential. We want data on side effects to be collected at European level and thoroughly investigated. We do not have any data to suggest that it would be better not to vaccinate or better. But if Europe draws conclusions, we will follow through. We do not think it is prudent to stop vaccination at a time when the virus is spreading in this way. “
The Belgian Health Minister regretted that suddenly many European countries have decided to suspend the vaccination process.
“It’s like an influx of decisions,” he added.
“I spoke with my Portuguese colleague yesterday. They have decided to temporarily suspend the vaccination campaign, but they do not have data to support such a decision. They probably do not like dealing with side effects that they cannot explain. However, people are at a much higher risk of become infected with COVID-19 than those who are exposed to side effects. COVID-19 is a serious disease, “said the minister.
“We will never vaccinate Europe if we do. In this case, we will have the third, fourth, fifth wave. We have to be careful with these chain reactions,” he said.
Europe’s pause for AstraZeneca vaccines could be a vaccination disaster
Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London has expressed concern that the decision of some countries to temporarily suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca may deter people from getting vaccinated.
When asked what to say to those who need to get vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Professor Openshaw told the BBC: “I really wouldn’t be worried at this point. I think it’s very clear that the benefits of vaccination at this time far outweigh the potential concerns about this relatively rare type of blood clot. “
“Statistically speaking, this is an absolutely obvious argument that we should get vaccinated. I think it could be a disaster for the vaccination campaign in Europe, which is already on shaky ground in some countries, ”he said.
“A longer review or a permanent ban would be a severe blow to the European Union (EU) vaccination program,” Eurico Group analyst Federico Santi wrote in his comments. “This could mean that the EU will not reach a vaccination level that is compatible with a significant lifting of restrictions in many Member States by the end of the second quarter, rather than mid-spring, as we currently expect.”
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