AMSTERDAM / LONDON (Reuters) – Germany, France and other European nations announced plans to resume use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday after EU and UK regulators took steps to boost confidence in the injection , saying that its benefits outweigh the risks.
Reports of rare brain blood clots have led more than a dozen nations to suspend the use of the injection, the latest challenge for AstraZeneca’s ambition to produce a “vaccine for the world” as the global number of deaths from the coronavirus passes of 2.8 million.
The “clear” conclusion of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after an investigation of 30 cases of unusual blood diseases was that the vaccine’s benefits in protecting people from coronavirus-related death or hospitalization outweigh the possible risks, although it says there are a link between blood clots in the brain and the shot could not be definitively ruled out.
“This is a safe and effective vaccine,” said EMA director Emer Cooke at a briefing. “If it were me, I would be vaccinated tomorrow.”
Within hours, Germany announced it would resume administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday morning. Health Minister Jens Spahn said suspending the vaccine as a precaution was the right decision “until the cluster of this very rare type of thrombosis has been examined”.
France also said it would resume use of the vaccine, with Prime Minister Jean Castex stating that he himself would receive the injection on Friday afternoon.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that Italy would do the same and that his government’s priority remains to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.
Spain said it was considering a possible resumption, while Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania said they would restart administration of the vaccine.
Many governments said the decision to stop vaccinations was over-cautious. But experts warned that political interference could undermine public confidence in vaccines as governments struggle to tame more infectious variants of the virus.
“We trust that, after careful decisions by regulators, vaccinations can be resumed across Europe,” said AstraZeneca chief physician Ann Taylor in a statement.
EUROPA LAGS GREAT BRITAIN, USA
The EMA review covered 20 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA), which unites 30 European countries.
Safety concerns have prompted at least 13 European countries to stop administering the injection, delaying an already faltering vaccination campaign in the EU, which lags Britain and the United States.
Britain’s Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said earlier that it was investigating five cases of the rare cerebral blood clot reported in 11 million injections administered in the UK.
He said he would investigate reports of clots in the brain veins (sinus vein thrombosis, or CSVT) occurring along with reduced platelets soon after vaccination. But the agency said use of the vaccine should continue and an official said the launch in Britain is likely to continue, even if a link is proven.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was among the first and cheapest of the COVID-19 vaccines to be developed and launched in large volume and should be the mainstay of vaccination programs in much of the developing world.
“The EMA (verdict) now provides clarity on the safety of this vaccine, which must now be vaccinated at a high rate after this safety stop, in order to effectively prevent the real risk, that is, sometimes serious medical damage from Covid- 19, ”said Clemens Wendtner, head of infectious diseases at the Schwabing clinic in Munich.
The pharmaceutical company’s analysis of more than 17 million people who received their injection in the EU and Britain found no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
The World Health Organization also reaffirmed its support for the injection this week.
The EMA said it would update its guidelines on the AstraZeneca vaccine to include an explanation to patients about the potential risks and information for healthcare professionals.
The agency said it is in contact with regulators around the world to maintain control over 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; Written by Josephine Mason, Elaine Hardcastle and Nick Tattersall; Bill Berkrot’s Edition