Germany, Italy, France suspend AstraZeneca shootings amid safety concerns disrupting EU vaccinations

BERLIN v GENEVA (Reuters) – Germany, France and Italy said on Monday they would take a break from shooting AstraZeneca COVID-19 after several countries reported possible serious side effects, throwing Europe’s already struggling vaccination campaign into disarray.

Denmark and Norway stopped hitting last week after reporting isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count. Iceland and Bulgaria followed suit, and Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.

Spain will stop using the vaccine for at least 15 days, Cadena Ser radio reported, citing unnamed sources.

The movements of some of the largest and most populous countries in Europe will deepen concerns about the slow release of vaccines in the region, which has been hit by shortages due to vaccine production problems, including AstraZeneca.

Germany warned last week that it is facing a third wave of infections, Italy is stepping up blockages and hospitals in the Paris region are close to being overloaded.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that although the risk of blood clots was low, it could not be ruled out.

“This is a professional decision, not a political one,” Spahn said, adding that he was following a recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Germany’s vaccine regulator.

France has said it is suspending the use of the vaccine pending an assessment by the EU medicines regulator on Tuesday. Italy said stopping it was a “precautionary and temporary measure” pending the regulatory authority’s decision.

Austria and Spain have stopped using certain batches, and prosecutors in the Piedmont region of northern Italy have earlier confiscated 393,600 doses after a man died a few hours after being vaccinated. It was the second region to do so after Sicily, where two people died shortly after being shot.

The World Health Organization has called on countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. The head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that there are public health protection systems.

“This does not necessarily mean that these events are related to COVID-19 vaccination, but it is a routine practice to investigate them and show that the surveillance system is working and that there are effective controls,” Tedros said during a virtual press briefing. in Geneva.

He said a meeting of the advisory committee on AstraZeneca would take place on Tuesday.

The United Kingdom said it had no concerns, while Poland said it believed the benefits outweighed any risks.

The EMA said that as of March 10, a total of 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported among nearly 5 million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca shot in the European Economic Area, which links 30 European countries.

Michael Head, a senior researcher in global health at the University of Southampton, said the decisions by France, Germany and others were daunting.

The data we have suggest that the number of adverse events related to blood clots is the same (and possibly, in fact, lower) in vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated populations, he said, adding that stopping a vaccination program had consequences. .

This results in delays in protecting people and the potential for increased hesitation in the vaccine as a result of people who have seen the headlines and become understandably concerned. There are still no signs of data to really justify these decisions. ”

The general director of the Italian medical agency Aifa, Nicola Magrini, told a radio station that several European countries preferred to suspend the vaccine “in the presence of very recent cases and very few cases of adverse events” in women and young people.

“… Those who have already had the vaccine can and must remain safe,” she said. “I feel like the vaccine is safe, even after analyzing all the data.”

“Unusual” SYMPTOMS

AstraZeneca’s image has been among the first and cheapest developed and released in volume since the coronavirus was first identified in central China in late 2019 and will be the main vaccination program in most developing countries.

Thailand on Monday announced plans to continue firing on the Anglo-Swedish company after suspending its use on Friday, but Indonesia said it would wait for the WHO to report.

The WHO said its advisory panel was reviewing the shooting reports and would publish its findings as soon as possible. But he said he was unlikely to change his recommendations, issued last month, for widespread use, including in countries where the South African version of the virus could reduce its effectiveness.

The EMA also said that there was no indication that the events were caused by vaccination and that the number of reported blood clots was not higher than that observed in the general population.

The hand of side effects reported in Europe has upset vaccination programs already under pressure due to slow launches and vaccine skepticism in some countries.

The Netherlands said on Monday it had seen 10 cases of possible notable side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, hours after the government put its vaccination program on hold following reports of possible side effects in other countries.

Denmark reported “extremely unusual” symptoms in a 60-year-old citizen who died of a blood clot after receiving the vaccine, the same phrase used by Norway on Saturday about three people under the age of 50 who said they are being treated in the hospital.

“It was an unusual course of illness around the death that made the Danish Medicines Agency react,” the agency said in a statement late Sunday.

One of the three medical workers hospitalized in Norway after receiving the AstraZeneca shot died, health officials said on Monday, but there is no evidence that the vaccine was the cause.

AstraZeneca previously said it had carried out an analysis covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the UK, which showed no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.

The long-awaited results of the study of the AstraZeneca vaccine with 30,000 people in the US are currently being examined by independent monitors to determine if the shot is safe and effective, a US official said on Monday.