More than a dozen countries in the European Union have suspended the distribution of AstraZeneca’s vaccine due to blood clots, which has hampered the vaccination effort already lagging across the region.
The call to suspend implementation is being questioned by some health experts, who say the data simply does not support the decision. It is ‘important to contextualise’ what is reported, because the risk of blood clots is not higher among vaccinated than among the general population, said dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, a disease doctor at the University of Washington, told Yahoo Finance. ‘There is, frankly, no worrying signal here. It seems to be more politically motivated than anything with real science. ”
Political pressure is something health experts have noted as the reason for the suspension. After Germany made the decision to suspend the shot nationwide, the theory is that other countries followed it out of an abundance of caution. As of Wednesday, 13 European countries have discontinued the vaccine, including Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
The European Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency, is investigating. At a news conference this week, the agency’s director Emer Cooke said she was “firmly convinced” that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweighed the concerns and that “there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions. “
“Overcoming this reluctance, fear and mistrust are critical.”
The vaccination of AstraZeneca can harm its credibility and therefore the vaccination of worldwide can be jeopardized.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to store, plays a critical role in COVAX, the program designed to accelerate access to COVID-19 vaccines for middle- and lower-income countries. The program is expected to deliver 237 million doses of the vaccine to 142 countries by May.
“It’s a big obstacle. I’m not going to play it down, ”said Davis. “It simply came to our notice then. AstraZeneca is one of the most important distributors we have … Overcoming this hesitation, this fear, this mistrust around this data is going to be critical. ‘
Support for the vaccination of AstraZeneca has been plagued by the latest concerns. A recent survey by YouGov, a UK market research and data analysis firm, found that Europeans have more confidence in the safety of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines compared to the survey provided by AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca defends vaccine safety
AstraZeneca continues to defend its vaccine, arguing that clinical trials have proven its safety.
In a statement released on Sunday, Ann Taylor’s chief medical officer of AstraZeneca said that of the 17 million people vaccinated with the vaccine in the EU and the UK, ‘the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is, is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population. The nature of the pandemic has led to greater attention in individual cases and we go beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events to ensure public safety. ”
The World Health Organization has said it is reviewing reports related to concern about the shot, but in the meantime it continues to support and recommend its use.
Seana Smith anchors Yahoo Finance Live’s 17:00 ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith
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