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France, Germany, Italy and Spain coordinated their decision to temporarily suspend the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in an effort to help protect public trust, France’s industry minister said, as Sweden became the latest nation to stop using the injection.
“You can imagine that we spoke with Italy, we spoke with Spain, we spoke with Germany and it is no coincidence that these four countries, on the same day, announced the same decision,” Agnès Pannier-Runacher told France Info radio on Tuesday.
At least 16 European countries have suspended or limited the use of the jab due to concerns about possible side effects, despite the fact that the European Medicines Agency has said there was no evidence of a link between the vaccine and the reported incidents of blood clots. On Monday he asked for vaccinations to continue, stating that the risk-benefit ratio remained in favor of giving the injection.
Sweden was the last European country to take action on Tuesday after days of insisting the injection was safe to use. “There is good knowledge about this vaccine, but it is still important that we stop vaccination until the EMA has investigated whether these events could be related to injections,” said state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
No cases of serious blood clots have been reported in Sweden. But neighboring Norway and Denmark have reported one death each, and authorities in both countries are concerned about the unusual combination of blood clots and low platelet counts in younger, apparently healthy people who had received the vaccine. Spanish and German authorities have also expressed concern about the rare combination of adverse events.
In a sign of coordination between some European capitals, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on Monday afternoon before Italy announced its own suspension of the vaccine, people familiar with the matter said. Italy had previously stopped the use of a single batch of the vaccine, ABV 2856, but allowed other injections to continue.
“It is important that there is no mistrust in the population,” said Pannier-Runacher from France. “If you see decisions being made in other countries, the risk is that distrust of the vaccine develops. Our intention is to be perfectly transparent. . . Y [show] that every time there is an alert, we treat it as professionally as possible “.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced on Tuesday that BioNTech / Pfizer would advance some deliveries and provide the block with an additional 10 million doses in the second quarter, as the EU appeared to be moving forward to shore up other supplies.
AstraZeneca has championed the safety and efficacy of its vaccine. Ann Taylor, the company’s chief medical officer, said on Sunday that around 17 million people in the EU and the UK had received the needle stick, with cases of blood clots “lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected between the general population “.
“The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we go beyond standard practices for monitoring the safety of authorized drugs when reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety,” Taylor said.
The EMA is expected to report further findings by Thursday at the latest. The World Health Organization, which has also emphasized that the vaccine is safe to use, is conducting its own review to determine if there is any causal link between the injection and serious adverse events.
Additional information on Daniel Dombey in Madrid
