A vial of the Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was seen at the Lochee Health Center in Dundee, Scotland, Great Britain on January 4, 2021.
Andy Buchanan | Pool | Reuters
LONDON – France and Italy say they are ready to quickly restart inoculation programs with the AstraZeneca vaccine if regulators confirm that it is still safe for use.
The European Medicines Agency’s preliminary statement on Tuesday was “encouraging,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said on Tuesday in a statement after a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron. He added that, in the event of a positive conclusion from EMA, France and Italy are ready to “immediately restart” vaccine inoculations.
The two countries are among more than a dozen who suspended shooting at AstraZeneca-Oxford University after reports of blood clots in some of the vaccinated citizens.
Concerns about the potential side effects of the vaccine emerged last week after a woman died in Austria. Since then, more countries have reported cases of blood clots and an unusual number of platelets in some patients. AstraZeneca said on Sunday that of the 17 million people vaccinated in the EU and the UK, there were 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism, according to data received until March 8.
We are still firmly convinced that the benefits … outweigh the risk of these side effects.
Emer Cooke
Executive Director of EMA
European health officials are still of the opinion that the injection is good to use in the fight against Covid-19. The EMA said on Tuesday that “there is no indication” so far that reports of blood clots have been caused directly by the vaccine.
“We are still firmly convinced that the benefits … outweigh the risk of these side effects,” Emer Cooke, EMA’s executive director, told a news conference.
She confirmed that the institution is studying 30 reports of unusual blood diseases and that it will announce the result of that work on Thursday.
A group of EU countries, including Belgium and Poland, continued to administer the AstraZeneca injection. European countries that have suspended the vaccine await the announcement of the EMA to decide how to proceed.
In the meantime, EMA is “concerned that there may be an effect on vaccine confidence,” Cooke said on Tuesday.
The EU vaccination program faced several obstacles. The public’s doubts about the safety of vaccines may make the EU’s main goal of having 70% of the adult population vaccinated by the end of the summer unfeasible.
Stella Kyriakides, the EU health commissioner, said Tuesday that “it is crucial that citizens can feel that they have the confidence and trust in the vaccines that have been authorized by the European Medicines Agency, so that we can fight this virus together. “
As of Monday, more than 6 million EU citizens had received the AstraZeneca vaccine from more than 46 million inoculations, according to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The European Commission also asked Member States on Tuesday to use all doses of vaccine to which they have access.
ECDC data shows that more than 62 million doses have been distributed to Member States, showing that there are almost 20 million doses that have already been administered.