AMSTERDAM / LONDON (Reuters) – Germany, France and other European countries on Thursday announced plans to resume use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after EU and British government regulators had confidence in the shot, saying its benefits outweigh the risks.
Reports of rare brain blood clots have prompted more than a dozen countries to suspend the use of the shot, the latest challenge for AstraZeneca’s ambition to produce a “vaccine for the world”, given the worldwide death toll from coronavirus 2, Exceeds 8 million.
The “clear” conclusion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after an investigation into thirty cases of unusual blood disorders was that the benefits of the vaccine to protect people against coronavirus death or hospitalization outweigh the possible risks. the brain and the shot could not be finally ruled out.
“It is a safe and effective vaccine,” EMA Director Emer Cooke said at a news conference. “If it was me, I would be vaccinated tomorrow.”
Germany said within hours that the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine would resume from Friday morning. Health Minister Jens Spahn said the suspension of the vaccine out of caution was the right call “until the grouping of this very rare type of thrombosis has been investigated.”
France also said the vaccine would be launched again, and Prime Minister Jean Castex said he would receive the shot himself on Friday afternoon.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said that Italy will do the same, and that his government’s priority is to vaccinate as many people as possible.
Spain said it would evaluate a possible resumption, while Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania said the vaccine would be re-administered.
Many governments said the decision to suspend vaccinations was out of a plethora of caution. But experts have warned that political interference could undermine public confidence in vaccinations as governments struggle to tame more contagious virus variants.
“We trust that after the thorough decisions of the regulators, vaccinations in Europe can resume,” Ann Taylor, chief medical officer of AstraZeneca, said in a statement.
EUROPE LAW BRITAIN, USA
The EMA’s survey covers 20 million people given the AstraZeneca shot in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA), which connects 30 European countries.
Security issues have led to at least 13 European countries stopping firing, which has delayed an already shaky vaccination campaign in the EU, leaving Britain and the United States behind.
The British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has earlier said it was investigating five cases of the rare cerebral blood clot reported from 11 million shots fired in the UK.
It is said to examine reports of blood clots in the cerebral veins (thrombosis of the sinus vein, or CSVT), along with lowered platelets shortly after vaccination. But the agency said the use of the vaccine should continue, and one official said Britain’s rollout was likely to continue even if a bond was proved.
The AstraZeneca survey was one of the first and cheapest of the COVID-19 vaccines developed and launched in volume, and is the mainstay of vaccination programs in many of the developing countries.
“The EMAs (ruling) now provide clarity on the safety of this vaccine, which now needs to be vaccinated against this high-dose safety stop to effectively prevent the real risk, ie sometimes serious medical damage of Covid-19. Clemens Wendtner, Head of Infectious Diseases at the Munich Clinic Schwabing.
The drugmaker’s own survey of more than 17 million people who have been shot in the EU and Britain found no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
The World Health Organization also confirmed its support for the shot this week.
The EMA has said it will update its guidelines on the AstraZeneca vaccine to include an explanation for patients about the potential risks and information for healthcare professionals.
The agency said it is in contact with regulators around the world to monitor the possible side effects of all COVID-19 vaccines.
Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Kate Kelland and Alistair Smout in London and Caroline Copley in Berlin; Writing by Josephine Mason, Elaine Hardcastle and Nick Tattersall; Edited by Bill Berkrot