BRUSSELS (AP) – With the rise in coronavirus cases in many places, governments faced the darkest dilemmas on Tuesday: continue with a vaccine known to save lives or suspend the use of AstraZeneca in blood clots dangerous to some recipients, even though the European regulator said there was “no indication” that the shooting was responsible.
It has created a jagged divide around the globe, forcing politicians to assess the health risks of stopping shootings at a time when many countries, especially in Europe, are already struggling to overcome logistical barriers and vaccine hesitation among their populations.
Sweden was the last to join a growing group of European Union nations choosing caution over speed, even though the head of the European Medicines Agency said the agency is “firmly convinced” that the benefits of AstraZeneca outweigh the risks.
Emer Cooke said on Tuesday that thousands of people across the EU develop thrombosis each year for several reasons and that no increases in blood clots have been reported in clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, experts will undertake a “very rigorous analysis” and make a recommendation on Thursday, she said.
Europe has the luxury of being able to choose from several vaccine candidates – but the decision is not yet an easy one on the continent, where the virus is growing again and where the vaccination campaign has been repeatedly thwarted.
The choice can be even more difficult elsewhere, as many countries rely heavily on AstraZeneca, which is cheaper and easier to handle than other photos. The vaccine has so far played a huge role in the global initiative to ensure that vaccines reach the poorer countries known as COVAX.
The difficulty of the decision was clear in Thailand, the first country outside Europe to temporarily suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, only to withdraw on Tuesday – when its prime minister received a dose.
“There are people who have concerns,” Prayuth Chan-ocha said after receiving the fire. “But we have to believe in doctors, to believe in our medical professionals.”
Many other Asian countries have allayed their concerns, although Indonesia has stopped using the shot this week, saying it will wait for a World Health Organization report on the issue.
In addition to the EMA, AstraZeneca and the WHO said there was no evidence that the vaccine had an increased risk of blood clots. 37 blood clots were reported among the more than 17 million people who received the vaccine in the EU and the UK, the company said.
“This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar to other authorized COVID-19 vaccines,” said the Anglo-Swedish drug manufacturer.
The number of countries in the bloc that remain shot is falling after heavyweights, such as Germany, Italy, France and Spain, said they were suspending it.
This has left Belgium – and a handful of other people, such as Poland, Romania and Greece – increasingly isolated in their insistence that stopping the blows now would do much more harm than the side effects being debated now.
“When you know how the virus does, it would be very unwise to stop,” Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke told the VRT network early Tuesday.
Experts have noted that such concerns are inevitable in mass vaccination campaigns – with so many people receiving vaccines, some are forced to get sick even if the vaccine is not to blame. That would mean “we should be constantly interrupting campaigns in the coming months.”
“We wanted to remain as scientific as possible in the political and media turmoil that is currently shaking Europe,” said Belgian virologist Yves Van Laethem.
In Spain, which announced it was suspending the vaccine on Monday, some medical experts had doubts about the move. Amós García, president of the Spanish Vaccinology Association, said countries were overly jealous in stopping the use of AstraZeneca.
And the decisions seemed to have a snowdrop effect. “There is a cross-border contagion effect,” Garcia said.
“Anything triggers the precautionary principle,” Garcia told Spanish broadcaster TVE. “Once it starts it’s like a domino, it becomes very difficult for a country to continue to administer the vaccine,” if others stop, even just as a precaution.
With the torrent of decisions questioning the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite the assurances of experts, public opinion has been tested again to believe science beyond suspicion.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said the Balkan country would not stop using Astra-Zeneca vaccines and insisted that “unfortunately, some people have secondary thoughts because of a negative campaign.”
So often in disarray during the vaccination campaign, the EU of 27 nations was again out of the deadlock, with each Member State making its own decision, as the Executive Committee asked everyone to heed the EMA’s advice. When asked if European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will take the AstraZeneca vaccine, its spokesman Eric Mamer said “of course”.
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Jordanians reported from Berlin. PA reporters from around the world contributed to this report.
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