[ad_1]
GENEVA: The World Health Organization called on countries on Monday (March 15) not to pause vaccination campaigns after more European nations and one in Asia joined a handful that suspended use of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca due to safety concerns.
Thailand announced plans on Monday to go ahead with the Anglo-Swedish firm’s opportunity, but Indonesia said it would wait after Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.
Germany announced Monday that it would discontinue AstraZeneca vaccines, following a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, its authority in charge of vaccines.
France and Italy have also decided to stop administering the vaccine. French President Emmanuel Macron said France would stop using the vaccine pending an evaluation by the European Union’s drug regulator scheduled for Tuesday. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said he made the decision to also suspend the use of the vaccine after a discussion with his health minister.
Denmark and Norway have reported isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots, and a low platelet count after the AstraZeneca vaccine. Iceland and Bulgaria had previously suspended their use, while Austria stopped using particular lots.
READ: AstraZeneca finds no evidence showing increased risk of blood clots with COVID-19 vaccine
READ: Netherlands stops use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
The WHO said its advisory panel was reviewing reports related to the injection and would publish its findings as soon as possible. But he said he is unlikely to change his recommendations, issued last month, for widespread use, even in countries where the South African variant of the virus may reduce its effectiveness.
“To this day, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stop the serious disease of the virus,” said the WHO spokesman. Christian Lindmeier.
The AstraZeneca injection was one of the first and cheapest to be developed and launched in volume since the coronavirus was first identified in central China in late 2019 and will become the mainstay of vaccination programs on a large scale. part of the developing world. The virus has killed more than 2.7 million people.
Thailand became the first country outside of Europe to delay launching the vaccine on Friday, when its political leaders were due to receive the first injections, but the government said on Monday it would start using the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday.
Indonesia, however, said it would delay giving the injection due to reports of blood clots among some recipients in Europe and would await a WHO review.
READ: Malaysia approves use of Sinovac, AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines
The WHO had already said that there was no indication that the events were caused by vaccination, an opinion also expressed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which said the number of reported blood clots was no higher than that observed in the general population.
The few side effects reported in Europe have disrupted vaccination programs that are already under pressure from slow launches and skepticism of vaccines in some countries.
The Netherlands said on Monday it had seen 10 cases of notable potential adverse side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine, hours after the government suspended its vaccination program following reports of possible side effects in other countries.
Denmark reported “very unusual” symptoms in a 60-year-old citizen who died of a blood clot after receiving the vaccine, the same phrase used on Saturday by Norway on three people under the age of 50 who it said were being treated. in a hospital.
“It was an unusual course of illness around death that caused the Danish Medicines Agency to react,” the agency said in a statement Sunday night.
AstraZeneca Plc previously said that it had conducted a review covering more than 17 million vaccinated people in the European Union and the United Kingdom, which had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
READ: 3 Healthcare Workers Received AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine In Hospital With ‘Unusual’ Symptoms, Says Norway
READ: Italian Piedmont region stops use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine batch
POLITICAL ROW
In Germany, question marks over the vaccine sparked a political dispute, and the leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), Markus Soeder, said the country needed clear guidance from its own experts.
Noting that other EU countries had stopped using the vaccine, Soeder told a press conference: “So there has to be a clearer statement in Germany: is the vaccine good or bad?”
The health ministry said the country was continuing to use the vaccine in accordance with EMA guidelines.
Reports of potential security risks are taken seriously and data is constantly scrutinized, a ministry spokesman told Reuters. More procedures will be discussed with European and national vaccine regulators this week, he said.
Investigations into possible side effects are complicated as the history of each case and the circumstances surrounding a death or illness are examined. Austrian authorities have said that their review of the AstraZeneca batch will take about two weeks.
The EMA has said that as of March 10, a total of 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported among about 5 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Economic Area, which links 30 European countries.
The WHO said that as of March 12, more than 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered worldwide and no case of death caused by any of them had been found.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
