Germany, France and Italy said on Monday they would suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots after several countries reported possible serious side-effects, but the World Health Organization (WHO) said there was no proven link and people should not panic.
Still, the decision by the European Union’s three biggest countries to put inoculations with the AstraZeneca shot on hold threw the already struggling vaccination campaign in the 27-nation EU into disarray.
Denmark and Norway stopped giving the shot last week after reporting isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count. Iceland and Bulgaria followed suit and Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.
Spain will stop using the vaccine for at least 15 days, Cadena Ser radio reported, citing unnamed sources.
The top WHO scientist reiterated on Monday that there have been no documented deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines.
"We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca," WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a press briefing, adding there has been no association, so far, pinpointed between so-called “thromboembolic events” reported in some countries and COVID-19 shots.
The moves by some of Europe’s largest and most populous countries will deepen concerns about the slow rollout of vaccines in the region, which has been plagued by shortages due to problems producing vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s.
Paul Kelly says vaccine is safe and effective
Australia is rolling out the AstraZeneca vaccine and local production is ramping up, with more than 50 million doses to be produced.
Chief medical officer Paul Kelly maintains the vaccine chosen as Australia's mainstay is safe and effective.
Most Australians will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19, the first doses of which have been imported, but most will be made by CSL in Melbourne.
Professor Kelly said there was no evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine caused blood clots.
Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly. Source: AAP
"The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is effective, it is safe, and it's a high-quality vaccine."
Professor Kelly said more than 11 million people had been vaccinated in the UK without evidence of an increase in blood clots.
He said while it was important to carefully monitor any unusual events, these incidents could not necessarily be blamed on vaccines.
Professor Kelly spoke to British and European medicine regulators on Sunday night.
Because of Australia's close working relationship with European counterparts, the Therapeutic Goods Administration was always one of the first to be notified about possible problems with coronavirus vaccines.
"As noted by the European Medicines Agency, the action taken by several European countries is a precautionary measure so that a full investigation can be rapidly conducted," he said.
"Vaccination programs with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are continuing in other countries."
Professor Kelly said Australia had strong and clear protocols around reporting adverse reactions.
Germany warned last week it was facing a third wave of infections, Italy is intensifying lockdowns and hospitals in the Paris region are close to being overloaded.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that although the risk of blood clots was low, it could not be ruled out.
“This is a professional decision, not a political one,” Mr Spahn said, adding he was following a recommendation of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Germany’s vaccine regulator.
France said it was suspending the vaccine’s use pending an assessment by the EU medicine regulator due on Tuesday. Italy said its halt was a “precautionary and temporary measure” pending the regulator’s ruling.
Austria and Spain have stopped using particular batches and prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont earlier seized 393,600 doses following the death of a man hours after he was vaccinated. It was the second region to do so after Sicily, where two people had died shortly after having their shots.
The WHO appealed to countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said systems were in place to protect public health.
“This does not necessarily mean these events are linked to COVID-19 vaccination, but it’s routine practice to investigate them, and it shows that the surveillance system works and that effective controls are in place,” Dr Tedros said during a virtual media briefing in Geneva.
He said an advisory committee meeting on AstraZeneca would be held on Tuesday.
The United Kingdom said it had no concerns, while Poland said it thought the benefits outweighed any risks.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian receives her first dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on 10 March, 2021. Source: AAP
'Increased vaccine hesitancy'
The EMA has said that as of 10 March, a total of 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported among close to 5 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca shot in the European Economic Area, which links 30 European countries.
Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said the decisions by France, Germany and others looked baffling.
“The data we have suggests that numbers of adverse events related to blood clots are the same (and possibly, in fact lower) in vaccinated groups compared to unvaccinated populations,” he said, adding that halting a vaccination programme had consequences.
“This results in delays in protecting people, and the potential for increased vaccine hesitancy, as a result of people who have seen the headlines and understandably become concerned. There are no signs yet of any data that really justify these decisions.”
Italian medicine agency Aifa’s general director, Nicola Magrini, told a radio station that several European countries preferred to suspend the vaccine “in the presence of some very recent and very few cases of adverse events” in women and young people.
“...Those who have already had the vaccine can and must remain safe,” she said. “I feel like saying the vaccine is safe, even having reviewed all the data.”
'Unusual symptoms'
AstraZeneca’s shot was among the first and cheapest to be developed and launched at volume since the coronavirus was first identified in central China at the end of 2019, and is set to be the mainstay of vaccination programmes in much of the developing world.
Thailand announced plans on Monday to go ahead with the Anglo-Swedish firm’s shot after suspending its use on Friday, but Indonesia said it would wait for the WHO to report.
The WHO said its advisory panel was reviewing reports related to the shot and would release its findings as soon as possible. But it said it was unlikely to change its recommendations, issued last month, for widespread use, including in countries where the South African variant of the virus may reduce its efficacy.
The EMA has also said there was no indication the events were caused by the vaccination and that the number of reported blood clots was no higher than seen in the general population.
The handful of reported side-effects in Europe have upset vaccination programmes already stumbling over slow rollouts and vaccine scepticism in some countries.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison holds a vial of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine during a visit to the CSL lab in Parkville, Melbourne. Source: AAP
The Netherlands said on Monday it had seen 10 cases of possible noteworthy adverse side-effects from the AstraZeneca shot, hours after putting its vaccination programme on hold following reports of potential side-effects in other countries.
Denmark reported “highly unusual” symptoms in a 60-year-old citizen who died from a blood clot after receiving the vaccine, the same phrase used on Saturday by Norway about three people under the age of 50 it said were being treated in hospital.
“It was an unusual course of illness around the death that made the Danish Medicines Agency react,” the agency said in a statement late on Sunday.
One of the three health workers hospitalised in Norway after receiving the AstraZeneca shot had died, health authorities said on Monday, but there was no evidence the vaccine was the cause.
AstraZeneca said earlier it had conducted a review covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the UK which had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Long-awaited results from AstraZeneca 30,000-person U.S. vaccine trial are currently being reviewed by independent monitors to determine whether the shot is safe and effective, a top US official said on Monday.
