PARIS (AP) – First, France has abruptly suspended AstraZeneca vaccinations. Now, the French prime minister wants to get one as soon as possible.
With the virus recovering from Paris to Budapest and beyond, European governments that have hastened to stop using AstraZeneca vaccines after reports of blood clots are realizing the far-reaching impact of the change. And suddenly they look forward to any sign – or grape leaf – that would allow them to resume shooting.
This could happen on Thursday, when the European Medicines Agency releases the initial results of its investigations into whether there is a connection between the vaccine and blood clots. So far, EMA and the World Health Organization have said there is no evidence that the vaccine is to blame.
But experts fear the damage has already been done. Suspensions by Germany, France, Italy, Spain and others have raised doubts about the often defamed AstraZeneca vaccine and vaccination efforts in general, as the world struggles to win the pandemic..
“There are thousands of new cases in Germany, France, Italy, etc. every day. If you are interrupting vaccination during this ongoing pandemic, you know that people will die, ”Michael Head, senior researcher in global health at the University of Southampton, told The Associated Press.
While emphasizing the importance of investigating potentially dangerous side effects, he said, “It is entirely possible to investigate the signs without interrupting the vaccine’s release.”
Some countries are adhering to AstraZeneca vaccines. India on Wednesday promised to continue vaccinations, hours before the Brazilian Minister of Health celebrated the first doses of AstraZeneca bottled in the country.
New cases of coronavirus grew 10% globally last week, driven by outbreaks in Europe and the Americas, the WHO said on Wednesday, calling for the vaccination to continue.
“The disease is turning the corner in the wrong direction and we need to control it,” said Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s chief emergency officer. “We will stay behind the virus again.”
Even before Thursday’s announcement by the European drug enforcement agency, the President of the European Commission made it clear that the AstraZeneca vaccine will remain a pillar of the EU’s vaccination strategy.
“I trust AstraZeneca, I trust vaccines,” said Ursula von der Leyen.
Instead of addressing the vaccination suspensions that divided the EU, von der Leyen focused on the pharmaceutical company’s supply problems and revived conversations about vaccine export bans in the EU.
“AstraZeneca unfortunately produced and delivered insufficiently, and this, of course, painfully slowed the vaccination campaign,” she told reporters. She said the EU still plans to vaccinate 70% of all adults by September.
But AstraZeneca’s shooting suspensions in a number of cascading countries they have represented another setback for the EU’s vaccination campaign, which has been plagued by scarcity and other obstacles and is far behind campaigns in Britain and the USA. More than half of the EU’s 15 million doses of AstraZeneca so far are still stored because of problems.
Almost as soon as the President of France froze vaccines on Monday, leading French officials began to worry about the impact on public opinion in a country where many already considered the second-class AstraZeneca vaccine and where skepticism about the vaccine is ample.
The government now hopes to announce the resumption of vaccination as early as Thursday. The Paris region is facing new blocking measures this week, as more contagious and harmful variants of the virus pushed intensive care units beyond capacity and caused infections to resurface despite the 6 pm curfew throughout the country and the closing of restaurants and many businesses in the long run.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex, who at 55 and with no known health problems is still not eligible for vaccination, said on national television on Tuesday night that “it would be wise for me to be vaccinated very quickly, as soon as the suspension is, I hope, lifted. “
Castex said he wants to demonstrate to his fellow citizens “that vaccination is the way out of this crisis”.
Italy is following a similar line. The Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, said that European countries hope that the EMA will deliver on Thursday “the necessary clarifications and guarantees” in order to be able to resume the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine “without hesitation”.
In Germany, where eight cases of blood clots are under investigation, the authorities defended the decision to suspend vaccination for further investigations, but seemed ready to resume it soon. Ministry of Health spokesman Hanno Kautz said: “It is clear that the EMA decision is binding and, of course, we will follow the EMA decision as well.”
The President of Lithuania criticized the Minister of Health’s decision to suspend vaccines, saying that this causes “enormous damage to the entire vaccination process”.
The impact went beyond Europe, with some people dismissing the AstraZeneca vaccine as below average, even when it is the only one available.
Amós García, president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, said it would be difficult for governments to regain confidence in the general coronavirus vaccination program, no matter what the EMA announces.
“The problem when a vaccine is questioned is not that it affects that vaccine, but that it affects everyone in the vaccination,” he said.
“Possibly there has been an excess of zeal” between governments like Spain’s that suspended vaccination, he said. But he praised Europe’s vaccine surveillance systems for quickly identifying and investigating blood clot problems. Spain is examining three of these cases.
Spanish Health Minister Carolina Darias defended the decision to suspend the AstraZeneca vaccine, saying that it is necessary to “continue to build confidence” in efforts to combat COVID-19.
The EMA says that thousands of people across the EU develop blood clots every year for a variety of reasons and that there have been no reports of increased coagulation incidents in clinical studies of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The company says there have been 37 reports of blood clots among the more than 17 million people who received the vaccine in the EU and Britain.
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Cook reported from Brussels. Maria Cheng in London, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Colleen Barry in Milan and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
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