Copenhagen – Denmark announced on Tuesday that it will stop Oxford University AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine quite the first European country to do so due to alleged rare but serious side effects. Despite recommendations from the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency to continue the vaccination“The vaccination campaign of Denmark will continue without the vaccination of AstraZeneca,” Soren Brostrom, director of the health authority, said at a news conference.
Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca jab during its vaccination following reports of rare but severe cases of blood clots among those who received the vaccine.
More than a dozen countries have followed suit, but all but a few have since resumed using the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) emphasized the benefits of the vaccine and described it as ‘safe and effective’. ‘considered.
However, Denmark continued to use the vaccine because it had conducted its own investigations. In Denmark, two cases of thrombosis, one of which was fatal, have been linked to vaccinations after more than 140,000 people contracted the jab manufactured by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
In the country of 5.8 million inhabitants, 8% were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 17% received a first dose.
Since the use of the AstraZeneca jab was suspended in March, Denmark has continued to shoot Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna.
The AstraZeneca suspension slows down the country’s ambitious vaccine plans, but the health authority said in a statement that the availability of other vaccines along with the pandemic is currently under control, meaning the vaccination campaign can continue without it.
France: AstraZeneca for over 55 years
The French government on Wednesday reaffirmed its confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine as an ‘essential tool’ in the fight against COVID-19, hours after Denmark said it was no longer in use.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal also said the country would stick to its plan to give the 55-year-old Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was suspended in the US and South Africa this week due to the same type of rare blood clots. which was seen with the AstraZeneca drug.
France is already using the AstraZeneca shot at the age of 55 and was planning to increase its campaign with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is similar to the AstraZeneca shot.
The plan appears to be in jeopardy after Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday that it would delay the explosion of the vaccine in Europe after it was suspended in the US. at the beginning of the week and is delivered to GPs and pharmacies. ‘
His remarks come as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that the bloc would go heavier to BioNTech / Pfizer to make up for the suspended doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine and for longer term.
Her comments come because more and more EU countries are restricting the use of the adenovirus vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson to older people, who are not yet affected by the clotting issue.
United Kingdom: AstraZeneca for over thirty
While many of its neighbors eluded the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, for weeks, the British government did not waver.
The UK has driven most of the world forward and started earlier, vaccinating more people against COVID-19 as part of its population than almost any other country, and far more than any other European country.
The UK vaccination program relied heavily on the AstraZeneca shot, along with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. The Moderna vaccine has also been approved in the UK, but is not yet widely available.
Of the more than 20 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, the brain or abdominal blood clots were seen in less than 80 people, of whom less than 20 died.
It was not concluded that the vaccine caused the coagulation, but the fact that many of the coagulation incidents seen around the world occurred in younger women led the government to give new guidance last week that people younger than 30 different vaccine.
Nearly 32 million people in the UK have now had at least one injection of a COVID vaccine, and almost 5.5 million have been fully vaccinated.