LONDON (AP) – European Medicines Agency experts prepare to present conclusions of their investigation on possible links between Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and very rare cases of unusual coagulation disorders detected in the US on Tuesday
Last week, J&J stopped launching in Europe of his single-dose vaccine after the US Food and Drug Administration advised officials to stop using it while rare cases of blood clot are examined. Officials have identified six cases of extremely unusual blood clots in nearly 7 million people who were immunized with the shooting in the US
Johnson & Johnson advised European governments to keep their doses until the EU drug regulator has issued instructions on their use; the widespread use of photography in Europe has not yet begun.
The delay was an additional blow to vaccination efforts in the European Union, which are plagued by a lack of supply, logistical problems and concerns about unusual blood clots, as well as a small number of people receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Experts worry that temporarily stopping J & J’s shooting could shake confidence in the vaccine and complicate global COVID-19 immunization efforts.
Last week, South Africa suspended its use of the vaccine following the US break, and countries such as Italy, Romania, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia have submitted their J&J doses.
Blood clots related to the J&J vaccine occur in unusual parts of the body, such as veins that drain blood from the brain. These patients also have abnormally low levels of platelets in their blood, a condition normally associated with bleeding, not clotting.
With the AstraZeneca vaccine, scientists in Norway and Germany have suggested that some people experience an abnormal immune system response, forming antibodies that attack their own platelets.
It is not yet clear if there may be a mechanism similar to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But both the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines, as well as a Russian COVID-19 vaccine and one from China, are made with the same technology. They train the immune system to recognize the spike protein that covers the coronavirus. To do this, they use a cold virus, called an adenovirus, to carry the spike gene into the body.
“There is a suspicion that these rare cases can be triggered by the adenovirus component of the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines,” said Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh. She said that while more data was needed, “the fact remains that for the vast majority of adults in Europe and the US, the risks associated with contracting COVID-19 far outweigh any risk of being vaccinated.”
On Monday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 5 million new cases of cororavirus were confirmed worldwide last week, the highest number in a single week. He noted that cases and hospitalizations among younger people “have grown at an alarming rate.”
The European Medicines Agency, which regulates medicines used in EU member states, said last month that there was a “possible link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots, but said the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the risks of COVID-19 . He noted that the risk is lower than the risk of blood clots faced by healthy women on birth control pills.
The European Union has ordered 200 million doses of Johnson & Johnson by 2021, and EU officials have hoped the single vaccine could be used both to increase the continent’s delayed vaccination rates and to protect hard-to-reach populations such as migrant workers. and homeless.
Last month, the African Union announced it had signed an agreement to buy up to 400 million doses of J&J vaccine. Johnson & Johnson also has a deal to provide up to 500 million doses to the UN-backed COVAX initiative, which helps get vaccines for the world’s poor.
Any worries about the J&J vaccine would be another unwanted complication for COVAX and billions of people in developing countries, depending on the program. COVAX was recently hit by supply problems after its largest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, announced it would delay AstraZeneca vaccine exports by several months due to rising cases in the subcontinent.