Italy and Norway have joined Denmark and a host of other European countries in halting their use of AstraZeneca jabs amid fears they cause blood clots.
Eight EU countries have now announced they will stop using the jab over blood clot fears after a nurse in Austria died from a clot shortly after taking it, and amid reports of a number of other cases.
The move comes despite Europe’s own medical regulator saying there is no clear link between the nurse’s death and the jab, and UK regulators saying data shows those with the jab are no more likely to suffer clots than the general population.
It is far from the first time Europe has cast doubt on AstraZeneca’s jab.
Last month a host of countries including Germany and France restricted its use to over-65s, claiming it was ineffective in the elderly – despite Europe’s medical regulator saying otherwise.
Those restrictions were largely dropped after data showed the jab works in all ages.
Scaremongering around the jab has led some Europeans to refuse to take it, with authorities in Germany forced to resort to threatening people who balk at it.
That has hampered Europe’s already-slow vaccine drive which has been plagued by supply issues and has seen just seven per cent of people given at least one dose, compared to 33 per cent in the UK.
Downing Street also defended the vaccine, calling it ‘both safe and effective’ and insisted Britain would continue with its own rollout.
‘We’ve been clear that it’s both safe and effective… and when people are asked to come forward and take it, they should do so in confidence,’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman told reporters.
‘And in fact you’re starting to see the results of the vaccine programme in terms of the (lower) number of cases we’re seeing across the country, the number of deaths, number of hospitalisations.’
Denmark was first to announce its suspension, ‘following reports of serious cases of blood clots’ among people who had received the vaccine, the country’s Health Authority said in a statement.
It stressed the move was precautionary, and that ‘it has not been determined, at the time being, that there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots’.
Copenhagen’s health minister said authorities were probing whether there was a link between having the jab and blood clots, after several cases and one death.
Magnus Heunicke said: ‘At present it can not be concluded whether there is a connection. We are acting early, it must be thoroughly investigated.’
Denmark joins five other countries – Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Latvia – who suspended the vaccine after a 49-year-old Austrian woman died of ‘severe blood coagulation problems.’
As of March 9, 22 cases of blood clots had been reported among more than three million people vaccinated in the European Economic Area, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.
Austria announced on Monday that it had suspended the use of a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a 49-year-old nurse died of ‘severe blood coagulation problems’ days after receiving an anti-Covid shot.
Four other European countries – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxemburg – have also suspended the use of vaccines from this batch, which was sent to 17 European countries and consisted of one million jabs.
Denmark however suspended the use of all of its AstraZeneca supply, as did Iceland and Norway in subsequent announcements on Thursday citing similar concerns.
As well as the woman’s death, another three cases of blood clotting issues had been reported in Austria from people who had taken the vaccine.
One of those patients, a 35-year-old woman, developed a pulmonary embolism – a blockage of an artery on the lung – but is now recovering.
The EMA said that the batch which had been singled-out in Austria, labelled ABV5300, comprised one million doses and had been delivered to 17 EU countries.
