The suspensions follow reports that some people developed blood clots after receiving the injection, but the WHO says there is no proven link and recommends that people do not panic.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after several reports of blood clots in people who received the vaccine in Europe.
The flood of suspensions on Monday came after several other countries, mainly in Europe, stopped their launches at the end of last week.
The World Health Organization (WHO) supported the use of the vaccine and said it saw no evidence that the injection caused clotting in some people who received it.
The UN health agency is reviewing vaccine-related reports and has asked countries not to suspend vaccines, as its top scientist said people should not panic.
EU members stop shooting
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country had stopped using the vaccine on the recommendation of the national vaccine regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
The institute called for further investigation into seven reported cases of clots in the brains of people who received this vaccine.
“Today’s decision is a purely precautionary measure,” said Spahn.
France and Italy announced similar moves soon after.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the use of the AstraZeneca injection would be suspended as a precautionary measure until at least Tuesday afternoon, when the European Union’s drug regulator – the European Medicines Agency (EMA) – will issue its recommendation on the vaccine.
Macron did not elaborate on the reasoning behind the decision, but said at a news conference that he hopes France will be able to vaccinate itself with AstraZeneca injections again “soon”.
The Italian drug authority AIFA, however, said it was implementing its own suspension as a “precautionary and temporary measure”, pending EMA decisions.
The announcement came after the seizure of hundreds of thousands of doses of the vaccine by Italian prosecutors in northern Piedmont, where a professor died after his vaccination.
Experts are investigating whether there is a connection between his death and vaccination.
On Monday night, Spain’s Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, said the country was suspending the use of the vaccine for two weeks as a “precaution”.
She said the decision will remain in effect until the EMA “looks at the recent incidence of blood clots, especially over the weekend.”
AstraZeneca said there was no reason to worry about its vaccine, which is produced jointly with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and that there were fewer cases of thrombosis reported in those who received the injection than in the general population.
Peter Drobac, from the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera that the AstraZeneca vaccine has undergone “rigorous clinical testing” and blood clots have not been identified as a problem.
“The security break, I think it is certainly the prerogative of the regulators of these countries. However, we hear from the World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency and others that, at this point, the benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the risks, ”said Drobac.
WHO asks for calm
The EMA and WHO also said that the available data does not suggest that the vaccine caused the clots and that people should continue to be immunized with the vaccine.
WHO on Monday urged countries not to suspend vaccination against a disease that has already caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. The chief scientist at the UN health agency reiterated that there were no documented deaths related to the COVID-19 vaccines.
“We don’t want people to panic,” said Soumya Swaminathan, adding that there has been no association, so far, identified between the so-called “thromboembolic events” reported in some countries and the COVID-19 injections.
The guarantees seem to have done little to allay doubts, however, several countries have temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in recent days.
Denmark, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Bulgaria are among those who have suspended the use of the shot.