BRUSSELS – First it was AstraZeneca. Now Johnson & Johnson.
Last week, British regulators and the European Union’s medical agency said they had a possible link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and very rare, though sometimes fatal, blood clots.
Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that it would halt the explosion of its vaccine in Europe and the United States due to similar concerns, prompting the continent’s once-for-two-step-back efforts to get people fast against the coronavirus to immunize, to aggravate rapidly.
European officials were confident that they had enough alternative vaccine doses to address the worsening of the AstraZeneca problems and achieve their goal of reaching 70% of the European Union’s adult population by the end of the summer – around 255 million people. – te ent.
European officials on Tuesday did not immediately say whether they believed the milestone would also survive the Johnson & Johnson suspension. But European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides posted on Twitter that the development of the Y & J vaccine in the US is currently under supervision “by the medical regulator of the block.
They are pinning their hopes on at least 300 million doses that are expected to arrive in the region this month and in May and June, two-thirds of which come from Pfizer, which had a good record of delivering to the European Union. .
The problems with two major vaccines cast a cloud over the deployment of the European Union vaccine, just as it has finally started to grow after months of shortcomings and logistical problems.
There is growing evidence that the concerns are undermining Europeans’ willingness to get the AstraZeneca vaccine in particular and threatening to increase the high levels of vaccinations already.
New and seemingly arbitrary guidelines, which differ from country to country regarding the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, have contributed to the astonishment among Europeans who are still waiting to be vaccinated.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is still given to older people throughout the block. But some countries have restricted its use to younger demographics. Britain crossed the border at the age of 30. In France and Belgium it is 55. In Germany, Italy and Spain, 60. Other countries, such as Norway and Denmark, do not give the AstraZeneca vaccine at all.
It did not help that the new guideline not to give the AstraZeneca shot to younger people is the opposite of what was recommended when it was first introduced in Europe, when many countries only gave it to younger people because early data not a large number of older people in clinical trials.
The confusion takes its own toll. According to a YouGov poll published last month, 61 percent of French, 55 percent of Germans and 52 percent of Spaniards consider the AstraZeneca vaccine “unsafe.” This is in stark contrast to the findings of a similar poll in February, when more people in the countries, with the exception of France, believed the shot was safer than unsafe.
Regulators have asked vaccine recipients and doctors to be on the lookout for certain symptoms, including severe and persistent headaches and small blood stains under the skin. Doctors’ groups have distributed guidelines on treating the disease.
In Poland, where the vaccination campaign is largely based on AstraZeneca and where its use is not restricted, a recent poll showed that less than 5 percent of Poles would choose the AstraZeneca shot if they had a choice has.
Almost everywhere in the European Union, it seems, is very keen on alternatives, as the new types of vaccines that include the Moderna and Pfizer, which science uses, known as ‘mRNA’, are not associated with similar side effects.
Data from the 27 EU member states by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control show that 80 percent of the vaccine doses distributed to the block have already been administered. The share drops to 65 percent for AstraZeneca, indicating that many of the doses sit unused.
Yet it is difficult to predict how serious the latest twist in the AstraZeneca saga – and the new Johnson & Johnson concern – will be EU vaccination efforts, as officials in Brussels made a major effort to make the offer in the second quarter to turbocharged. doses.
The European Union is ready to receive at least 300 million doses of different vaccines, three times as much as it received in the first quarter. Two hundred million will come from Pfizer / BioNTech. Moderna is expected to deliver 35 million doses. Another 55 million doses are due to the Johnson & Johnson sting, and 70 million from AstraZeneca.
In the most rosy scenario, the European Union could receive up to 360 million doses by June.
On Thursday, after the Spanish government changed the age limit for the AstraZeneca shot, two-thirds of the people called for vaccination in Madrid did not show up, Antonio Zapatero, the local health minister, said at a news conference on Friday. .
He attributed the exhibition of 18,200 people to ‘confusion’ caused by the Spanish central government, which said on Wednesday that the AstraZeneca vaccine should only be given to people over 60 years of age. Prior to this change, Mr. Zapatero said, the rate of abstinence was 2 percent.
In Belgium, where the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was also restricted, authorities said they did not expect major delays in the overall rollout, but were still concerned about the confusion caused by the rare problem with blood clotting.
Yves Van Laethem, a top epidemiologist who is the country’s Covid task force spokesman, said he expected a two-week delay that would affect younger age groups mostly in late summer. He said the EU guideline had only partially helped to clarify the situation.
What you need to know about the vaccination of Johnson & Johnson in the USA
The opinion of the European Medicines Agency “was not very clear, and that is also part of the problem,” said Dr. Van Laethem said in an interview. “If you say, ‘We do not apply any restrictions, but we only say that there are serious side effects,’ there is a part of science and a part of diplomacy in it. ‘
He said the limited impact the new AstraZeneca spending would have on the Belgian deployment was largely because the country had ordered large shares of other vaccines.
Although all EU countries have so far been offered a portion of each vaccine approved in the block – AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer – many have chosen early on their share of more expensive or cumbersome vaccines such as Pfizer and Modern to abandon, rather the AstraZeneca stitch.
“In Britain or Eastern Europe, a large part of the campaigns are based on AstraZeneca,” said Dr. Van Laethem said.
Richer members of the bloc such as Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands can better compensate for the loss of confidence in AstraZeneca, as they have acquired extra doses of other vaccines – especially Pfizer – through a secondary market after poorer EU countries gave up theirs. has.
These countries – including Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia and Slovakia – are likely to be less likely to offer alternatives.
Dr. Van Laethem, the Belgian immunologist, said that the national and European authorities should better communicate the costs and benefits of taking the dose of AstraZeneca compared to the other authorized vaccines.
Experts are concerned that even limited concern about the unlikely side effects of one vaccine could affect the general willingness to be vaccinated.
“The most important thing is to make people understand that the problem is the virus,” he said. “We need to vaccinate people – the risk associated with the virus is higher than the rare side effects.”
Raphael Minder reported from Madrid and Constant Méheut from Paris.