BRUSSELS (AP) – With coronavirus cases escalating in many places, governments faced the worst dilemmas on Tuesday: continue with a vaccine known to save lives or suspend the use of AstraZeneca due to reports about dangerous blood clots in some recipients, even if the European regulator said there was “no indication” that the shot was responsible.
This has created a sharp gap around the world, forcing politicians to assess the health risks of stopping the shots at a time when many countries, especially in Europe, are already struggling to overcome logistical barriers and vaccine suppression among their population. .
Sweden was the youngest member of a swelling group of European Union countries choose caution over speeding, even though the head of the European Medicines Agency said the agency was “firmly convinced” that the benefits of the AstraZeneca shot outweigh the risks.
Emer Cooke noted on Tuesday that thousands of people across the EU develop thrombosis each year for various reasons and that there were no reports of increased blood clots in the clinical studies of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Still, experts will do a “very careful analysis” and make a recommendation on Thursday, she said.
Europe has the luxury of being able to choose from different candidates for vaccinations, but the decision is still not easy on the continent, where the virus is on the rise again and where the vaccination campaign has repeatedly stumbled.
The choice may be further hampered elsewhere, as many countries rely heavily on AstraZeneca, which is cheaper and easier to handle than some other shots. The vaccine has so far played a major role in the global initiative to ensure that vaccines reach 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, and only withdrew on Tuesday – when its prime minister received a dose.
“There are people who are worried,” Prayuth Chan-ocha said after getting the chance. “But we have to believe doctors, believe in our medical profession.”
Many other countries in Asia have also shaken off their concerns, although Indonesia stopped using the shot this week and said it would wait for a report from the World Health Organization on the issue.
In addition to the EMA, AstraZeneca and the WHO stated that there was no evidence that the vaccine had an increased risk of blood clots. There were 37 reports of blood clots among the more than 17 million people who received the vaccine across the EU and Britain, the company said.
“It is much lower than would naturally be expected in a general population of this size, and is similar to other licensed COVID-19 vaccines,” the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said.
But the number of countries in the bloc holding on to the shot is declining after heavyweights such as Germany, Italy, France and Spain all said they were suspending it.
This has isolated Belgium – and a handful of others such as Poland, Romania and Greece – more and more in their insistence that striking the shots would now do more damage than the side effects are now so hotly debated.
“If you know how the virus is doing the rounds, it will be very reckless to stop,” Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke told VRT network early Tuesday.
Experts have noted that such concerns are inevitable in mass vaccination campaigns – with so many people getting shots, some are likely to get sick, even if the vaccine is not blamed. This would mean that “in the coming months, we will have to stop campaigning incessantly,”
“We wanted to stay as scientific as possible in the media-political unrest currently raging in Europe,” said Belgian virologist Yves Van Laethem.
In Spain, which announced on Monday that the vaccine will be suspended, some medical experts have their doubts about the move. Amós García, president of the Spanish Vaccinology Association, said countries were eager to stop the use of AstraZeneca.
And the decisions seem to have a snowball effect. “There’s a transboundary contagion effect,” Garcia said.
“Anything causes the principle of caution,” García told Spanish broadcaster TVE. ‘Once it’s started, it’s like a domino, it’s very difficult for a country to keep the vaccine,’ if others stop, even if only out of precaution.
With the deluge of decisions questioning the AstraZeneca vaccine despite the assurance of experts, public opinion has once again been tested to believe science because it is suspicious.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic says the Balkans will not stop using vaccines against Astra-Zeneca and has insisted that “unfortunately, some people are thinking about a negative campaign.”
So often in disarray during the vaccination, the EU of 27 countries were again out of step, while the member states each made their own decision, as the executive commission called on everyone to heed the EMA advice. Asked if EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would take the AstraZeneca vaccine, her spokeswoman Eric Mamer said “of course.”
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Jordans reports from Berlin. AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.
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