Tag: AstraZeneca

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Blood clots linked to AstraZeneca shot have 22% mortality charge: research

Blood clots linked to AstraZeneca shot have 22% mortality rate: study

A paramedic prepares doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for patients at a walk-in COVID-19 clinic at a Buddhist temple in the Smithfield suburb of Sydney on Aug. 4, 2021.

Saeed Khan | AFP | Getty Images

A new study has provided further details on the “rare but devastating” blood clotting complications associated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

In a peer-reviewed article published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Massachusetts Medical Society scientists analyzed the first 220 cases of the disease reported in the UK.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine – now one of the most widely used Covid vaccines in the world – was launched in the UK in January, making it the first country to give the vaccine.

A very small number of people who were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine have developed blood clots. Described by health officials as “extremely rare”, it is characterized by blood clots accompanied by low platelet counts.

The Massachusetts Medical Society study uses data identified from 294 patients who presented to UK hospitals between March 22nd and June 6th.

All of these patients had received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot and were hospitalized with symptoms between five and 48 days after their vaccination. The average time between vaccination and hospitalization was 14 days, the results showed.

The overall mortality rate for VITT in the study was 22%.

The researchers also found that 41% of patients who presented with VITT were not diagnosed with any underlying health problems. Of those reporting a past or current illness, the study found that no illnesses or medications that were “unexpected in the general population” were prevalent.

“Against the background of a successful vaccination program in the UK, VITT has emerged as a rare but devastating complication,” the study’s authors said in their report. “We found that it often affects young, otherwise healthy vaccine recipients and is associated with high mortality.”

“In our cohort, 85% of the patients were younger than 60 years, although the (Oxford / AstraZeneca) vaccination was predominant in older adults,” the scientists found.

As a precaution, Great Britain has been offering people under 40 an alternative to the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine since May.

People diagnosed with VITT ranged from 18 to 79 years old, with the mean age being 48, the study showed.

As of July 28, inclusive, an estimated 24.8 million first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine had been administered in the UK, with an estimated 23.6 million second doses received.

On July 28, government figures show that for every million first or unknown doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca shot, 14.9 people developed a rare blood clot with low platelet counts. After a second dose of the vaccine, the number dropped to 1.8 cases per million.

The overall death rate for that period was 18%, the government data showed, with 73 deaths. Six of these occurred after the second dose.

Late last month, AstraZeneca published a study that found the VITT rate was 8.1 per million after the first dose of its vaccine, which dropped to 2.3 per million after a second dose.

According to official information, 411 suspected cases of VITT had been reported in Great Britain by July 28.

Benefits vs. Risks

In a statement Thursday, AstraZeneca said the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine was drawn from “a small sample size.”

“Recent practical evidence from millions of people shows that AstraZeneca’s vaccine has a similar safety profile to other vaccines and that thrombosis with thrombocytopenia is extremely rare and treatable,” said a spokesman.

The spokesman added that the infection with Covid-19 “poses a far greater risk” for rare blood clotting events.

“Vaccines remain the most effective protection against Covid-19 and the best way out of this pandemic,” they said.

Both the UK and EU drug regulators have identified possible links between the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots.

In April, the company announced it would comply with government requests in the UK and Europe to update its Covid vaccine labels. However, it stressed that the WHO had said “a causal relationship is considered plausible but not confirmed”.

The UK Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee has stated time and time again that for the vast majority of people, the benefits of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine continue to outweigh the risks.

Several health authorities, including the WHO, the European Medicines Agency and the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, agree that the benefits of giving the vaccine outweigh the risks.

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Health

Mixing Pfizer, AstraZeneca Vaccines Provides Sturdy Covid Safety, Research Finds

Mixing Pfizer, AstraZeneca Vaccines Gives Strong Covid Protection, Study Finds

Initial results from a UK vaccine study suggest that mixing different brands of vaccine can produce a protective immune response against Covid-19. In the study, volunteers produced high levels of antibodies and immune cells after receiving a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and a dose of the AstraZeneca Oxford shot.

Giving the vaccines in any order will likely provide effective protection, said Dr. Matthew Snape, a vaccines expert at Oxford University, at a news conference Monday. “Any of these schedules I think could be argued and expected to be effective,” he said.

Dr. Snape and his colleagues began the study called Com-COV in February. In the first wave of the study, they gave 830 volunteers one of four vaccine combinations. Some received two doses from Pfizer or AstraZeneca, both of which have been shown to be effective against Covid-19. Others got a dose of AstraZeneca, followed by one from Pfizer, or vice versa.

With the first wave of volunteers, the researchers waited four weeks between doses. Studies have shown that the AstraZeneca vaccine offers greater protection when the second dose is delayed for up to 12 weeks. Therefore, the researchers are also conducting a separate 12-week study that should provide results over the next month.

The researchers found that volunteers reported more chills, headaches, and muscle aches than people who received two doses of the same vaccine. But the side effects were short-lived.

Dr. Snape and his colleagues then took blood samples to measure the immune response in the volunteers. They found that those who received two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech produced antibody levels about 10 times higher than those who received two doses of AstraZeneca. Volunteers who received Pfizer followed by AstraZeneca showed antibody levels about five times higher than those who received two doses of AstraZeneca. And volunteers who received AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer achieved antibody levels about as high as those who received two doses of Pfizer.

Dr. Snape said the differences would most likely decrease in the volunteers who received a second dose after 12 weeks when the AstraZeneca vaccine had more time to intensify its effects.

The study also found that using different vaccines produced higher levels of immune cells prepared to attack the coronavirus than when giving two doses of the same vaccine. Dr. Snape said it was not yet clear why mixing had this advantage. “It’s very fascinating, let’s say so much,” he said.

Dr. Snape and colleagues have started a similar study, adding Moderna and Novavax vaccines to their list of possibilities.

For now, he said, the best course of action remains to get two doses of the same vaccine. Large clinical studies have clearly shown that this strategy reduces the likelihood of developing Covid-19. “Your default should be what has been shown to work,” said Dr. Snape.

But there are many cases where that is not possible. Vaccine deliveries are sometimes delayed due to manufacturing issues, for example. Younger people in some countries have been advised not to receive a second dose of AstraZeneca due to concerns about the low risk of blood clots. In situations like this, it’s important to know if people can switch to another vaccine.

“This provides reassuring evidence that should work,” said Dr. Snape.

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Politics

U.S. Is Working to Ship Doses Overseas by Changing AstraZeneca Photographs With Others

U.S. Is Working to Send Doses Abroad by Replacing AstraZeneca Shots With Others

With less than two weeks left to fulfill President Biden’s promise to share 80 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine with countries in need, production problems at an Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing facility are forcing the government to revise its plan to send AstraZeneca doses overseas .

Officials are now working to replace tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that were originally intended to be included in the donation with others from Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, according to people familiar with the discussions. These three vaccines are approved in the US for emergency use.

A pattern of serious neglect at the Baltimore facility has challenged the fate of more than 100 million doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines manufactured there. The Food and Drug Administration reviews the records of virtually every batch that Emergent has produced to determine if the cans are safe. The FDA has so far decided that approximately 25 million Johnson & Johnson cans made at the factory can be cleared, but has not made a decision on the AstraZeneca cans.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is significantly cheaper than the other three vaccines: the federal government paid less than $ 4 per dose, compared to up to $ 19.50 for Pfizer. A administration official said that if the AstraZeneca cans produced by Emergent are declared safe, the supply will ultimately be shared with other nations.

The cans the government plans to ship overseas this month will be part of existing orders from other manufacturers that have not yet shipped to states, said a person familiar with the planning. Ten million doses of the three US-approved vaccines that have already been shipped are unused. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 175 million people in the US have received at least one dose.

Until the White House announced last week it would share 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine with the rest of the world, the AstraZeneca doses made up the bulk of the government’s vaccine diplomacy.

Mr Biden pledged to share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine with other nations in late April pending the ongoing FDA review of Emergent. In May, the White House announced it would send at least another 20 million doses of other vaccines overseas, bringing the total to 80 million by the end of June.

Earlier this month, the White House stated how it would initially distribute 25 million of the 80 million cans across “a wide range of countries.” Millions of these have already been shipped and more will be shipped shortly, a White House spokesman said.

Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said Thursday that 80 million doses would be allocated by the end of the month but did not specify the type. He said the government was working with other countries on complicated logistical issues, including securing needles, syringes and alcohol swabs that would fit the cans.

“We will allot all of the initial 80 million cans in the coming days and shipments will be sent out as soon as countries are ready to receive the cans,” Mr. Zients said at a press conference. “There will be an increasing number of broadcasts each week as we step up these efforts.”

To share vaccines other than AstraZeneca’s, said a person familiar with the plan, the administration will likely need permission from the manufacturers. These discussions are still going on, said the person.

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Health

AstraZeneca Photographs Carry Barely Larger Danger of Bleeding Drawback, New Research Says

AstraZeneca Shots Carry Slightly Higher Risk of Bleeding Problem, New Study Says

People who received the Covid vaccine, made by Oxford-AstraZeneca, were at a slightly increased risk of developing a bleeding disorder and possibly other rare blood problems, researchers reported Wednesday.

The results of a study of 2.53 million adults in Scotland who received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine or the vaccine obtained from Pfizer-BioNTech were published in Nature Medicine. About 1.7 million of the shots were from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The study found no increased risk of blood disorders with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved in the United States, but it has been approved by the European Medicines Agency, the top drug agency in the European Union, as well as many countries outside the bloc. However, reports of rare coagulation and bleeding disorders in younger adults, some of which were fatal, led a number of countries to restrict the use of the vaccine to the elderly and a few to discontinue it altogether.

The new study found that the AstraZeneca vaccine was linked to a slight increase in the risk of a condition called immune thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, which can cause bruising in some cases but severe bleeding in others. The risk was estimated to be 1.13 cases per 100,000 people who received their first dose up to 27 days after vaccination. This estimate would be in addition to the typical pre-vaccine incidence in the UK, which has been estimated at six to nine cases per 100,000.

The condition is treatable, and none of the cases in vaccine recipients have been fatal, the researchers said. They stressed that the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh the low risk, noting that Covid itself is much more likely than the vaccine to cause ITP

However, the researchers also wrote that while the risks of the AstraZeneca vaccine are low, “alternative vaccines for those at low risk of Covid-19 may be warranted if supplies allow”.

It wasn’t surprising to find ITP in a few vaccine recipients, the researchers said, noting that the risk also increased slightly with those vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as those vaccinated against hepatitis B and flu.

In a comment published with the study, blood disease experts said ITP could be difficult to diagnose and that the possible association needed further analysis. But they wrote, “Still, the risk of vaccination-induced ITP appears to be far less at the suggested rate than the many risks associated with Covid-19 itself.”

The study in Scotland also found a very small increased risk of arterial clots and bleeding that may be associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, the researchers said there wasn’t enough data to conclude that the vaccine has been linked to a rare type of blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Earlier this year, reports of these brain clots resulted in some countries suspending or restricting use of the vaccine.

The researchers said they couldn’t rule out a link to the brain clots, but there weren’t enough cases to analyze them.

The brain clots are “as rare as chicken teeth,” said Prof. Aziz Sheikh, lead author of the study from the University of Edinburgh, during a press conference.

Similar concerns have been raised about a rare condition associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is approved in the US and other countries, particularly in younger women with brain clots and bleeding. Six U.S. cases, including one fatality, prompted federal health officials to order an interruption in use of the vaccine in April. The break was lifted after 10 days and the vaccine was reinstated with a label to warn consumers of the risk of clots and the availability of other vaccines. Several more cases were later identified and doctors were advised to avoid using heparin, a standard treatment, in these cases as it can make the condition worse.

The risk of clotting has led Denmark to reject the use of the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines both use so-called viral vectors to deliver genetic material into the recipient’s cells, and some researchers have suggested that the vectors can lead to the rare blood diseases. It is not known whether there is a connection.

The Scotland study authors said they did not know if their results on the AstraZeneca vaccine had any effect on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which they did not study.

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Health

Public demand for AstraZeneca vaccine falls after blood clot scares

Ireland, Netherlands suspend AstraZeneca vaccine amid blood clot fears

A medical worker fills a syringe with AstraZeneca vaccine at Santa Caterina da Siena – Amendola secondary school in Salerno on March 13, 2021 in Salerno, Italy.

Francesco Pecoraro | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – Public preference for the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has fallen since reports surfaced suggesting it may be linked to some cases of unusual blood clotting events.

An April study of nearly 5,000 adults in the UK, with Covid vaccine uptake high and the vaccination program well established, found that public preference for the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has declined since March and there is a belief that that he caused blood clots to have increased.

The UK academic study found that 17% of the public now say they would prefer the AstraZeneca vaccine if given a choice – up from 24% towards the end of March.

And 23% of people now believe the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots – up from 13% in March. However, the public are still the most likely to say that this claim is false (39%) or that they don’t know if it is true (38%).

The study, conducted April 1–16 by the University of Bristol, King’s College London, and the NIHR Health Protection Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Relief, found a “big difference” in beliefs before and after MHRA ( the UK Medicines Agency) announced on April 7th that there is a possible link between the vaccine and extremely rare blood clots.

The study found that 17% of respondents in the first week of this month thought this claim was true, compared with 31% who were asked about it.

Why autumn

Since the first clinical data was published, the vaccine has shown an average effectiveness rate of 70% (subsequent studies in the US have shown an effectiveness rate of 79%, and other studies have shown that the effectiveness rate increases with a larger gap between the first and second doses ) The fate of the AstraZeneca vaccine is mixed to say the least.

Continue reading: Dates, Doubts, and Disputes: A Timeline for AstraZeneca’s Covid Vaccine Problems

One of the recent hurdles for the AstraZeneca vaccine was a small number of reports of unusual, sometimes fatal, blood coagulation events that occurred in post-vaccinating people in Europe in February, causing several countries to suspend use of the vaccine.

The UK and EU drug regulators (the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority and the European Medicines Agency) examined the reports and said that while there is a possible link between the vaccine and low incidence of blood clotting, the benefits of the vaccine are significant outweighing them Risks.

The Anglo-Swedish vaccine maker, British government and experts largely defended the vaccine, saying it protected millions of people by reducing Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

In addition, experts tried to correlate the risk, saying the number of reported rare blood clotting cases with low platelets was about one case in 250,000 people vaccinated and one death in one million.

Britain is fortunate that it has traditionally received high levels of public support for vaccination. The vaccine preference survey found that, despite the growing belief that it was associated with blood clots, the AstraZeneca vaccine did not affect general confidence in vaccines in general. 81% say vaccines are safe, compared to 73% who said so in late 2020.

Similarly, views on how well vaccines work have changed: 86% say they are effective, up from 79% in November and December 2020.

However, surveys have shown that the public perception of the AstraZeneca vaccine has deteriorated in mainland Europe, and there is scattered evidence that people in the EU are using the AstraZeneca vaccine (referred to as the “Aldi” vaccine after the low-cost food chain will) because in favor of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, which also prevails when EU vaccinations are introduced.

Continue reading: “The damage is done”: Europe’s caution against the AstraZeneca vaccine could have far-reaching consequences

Moderna’s shot and Johnson & Johnson’s shot have also been approved for use in the EU and the UK, but have been less widely used, EU vaccination data show.

Hesitation to vaccinate can apparently work both ways. A British doctor reported in the Evening Standard newspaper in January that some of his patients had turned down the opportunity to receive the Pfizer vaccine, saying they would “wait for the English one.”

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Business

U.S. to share 60 million AstraZeneca doses with different international locations

U.S. to share 60 million AstraZeneca doses with other countries

A vial containing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is seen with syringes in the hospital of the Military Institute of Medicine in Warsaw, Poland on March 25, 2021.

Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images

The United States will share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine with other countries as coronavirus cases continue to rise worldwide, a senior US official said Monday.

Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response team, said the U.S. government will share the AstraZeneca footage as it becomes available. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the vaccine for use in the United States

The US will not distribute doses of the vaccine unless it meets FDA expectations for “product quality,” senior government officials told reporters during a news conference Monday.

The government believes the US could release 10 million doses of the vaccine “in the coming weeks” pending FDA approval, an official said. Another 50 million doses could be distributed in May and June, the official said.

“As part of the US strategy of being prepared for a number of scenarios, the US has already made some AstraZeneca cans,” the official said. “Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the US already has, as mentioned earlier, and the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved for use in the US, we don’t need to use AstraZeneca vaccine here for the next several months . “

The move comes as state and local health officials say supplies of Covid vaccines are starting to outperform demand in some regions of the United States

More than 139 million Americans, or 42.2% of the total US population, have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 94.7 million people, or 28.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

According to CDC data, the rate of Covid vaccinations in the US fell over the weekend. The 7-day average of shots administered daily fell to 2.8 million on Sunday, the lowest level since late March.

U.S. health officials say the nation doesn’t need the AstraZeneca vaccine to meet its goal of having enough doses for all adults in the U.S. by the end of May.

Biden previously said he expected the US to share its surplus of vaccine doses with other countries. China and Russia have also shared vaccines with other countries.

A day earlier, the Biden government announced that it would immediately provide the raw materials needed to manufacture coronavirus vaccines in India as the country works to counter an increase in Covid-19 infections.

Over the past seven days, India has reported an average of 321,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, according to Johns Hopkins University, a 50% increase from a week. The country has an average of 2,300 Covid deaths per day, according to Hopkins data. Media reports indicate that the official number is underestimated.

Cases are also increasing worldwide. The World Health Organization said earlier this month the number of new Covid-19 cases per week has nearly doubled in the past two months, which has brought global infections to their pandemic peak.

The WHO has urged wealthier nations like the US to donate vaccines to poorer or developing countries.

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Health

A brand new research hints at a purpose the J.&J. and AstraZeneca vaccines could trigger blood clots in uncommon circumstances.

A new study hints at a reason the J.&J. and AstraZeneca vaccines may cause blood clots in rare cases.

An advisory group from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine hiatus be lifted for all adults while also putting up a warning sign about a rare but dangerous blood clot disorder. However, a central mystery remains: how could a vaccine given to nearly eight million people cause the side effect in just a few of them?

There’s no clear answer yet, but Dr. Andreas Greinacher, a researcher at the University Medical Center Greifswald in Germany, leads an attempt to find out. Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, he said he had an agreement with Johnson & Johnson to study the components of the vaccine to see if it could interfere with normal blood clotting under certain rare conditions.

“We just agreed that we’d like to work together,” he said.

It is possible, said Dr. Greinacher that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can cause rare side effects through the same process that he suspects is responsible for similar side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The main component of both vaccines are harmless viruses called adenoviruses, which invade human cells and deliver a coronavirus gene that later triggers an immune response.

On Tuesday, Dr. Greinacher and his colleagues published a report on how the AstraZeneca vaccines can trigger the side effect. The study has not yet been published in a scientific journal.

The scientists found that components of the AstraZeneca vaccine can adhere to a protein that releases platelets when blood clots form. These lumps of molecules could be viewed by the body as foreign invaders, the scientists speculated, triggering a cascade of reactions that turn platelets into dangerous clots.

Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccines expert at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital who was not involved in the study, found Dr. Greinacher fascinating, but far from the final word. “It throws a lot of opportunities,” he said.

Dr. Offit said it was not clear which of the many factors the researchers looked at could explain the rare blood clots in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s doses. “It’s like taking a sip from a fire hose,” he said.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Greinacher said the research could reveal ways the AstraZeneca vaccine can lower the risk of blood clots or treat the side effects. However, he stressed that the small risk of these side effects was outweighed by the protection that vaccines like AstraZeneca offer against Covid-19.

“Not being vaccinated is far more dangerous than being vaccinated and at risk for this adverse drug reaction,” he said.

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Health

EU prepares authorized motion in opposition to AstraZeneca over vaccine supply points

EU prepares legal action against AstraZeneca over vaccine delivery issues

President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen

Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images

LONDON – The European Union is preparing legal action against AstraZeneca for insufficient supply of its coronavirus vaccine, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The EU and the pharmaceutical company were at odds several times this year. Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca said it couldn’t deliver as many vaccines as the block expects in both the first and second quarters. This has delayed the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in the 27 EU countries.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, told the 27 European ambassadors at a meeting on Wednesday that they were considering legal action against AstraZeneca over these delivery issues, four EU officials who said they refused to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue CNBC Thursday. Politico first reported on the Commission’s plan late Wednesday.

“The commission wants to act quickly. It’s a matter of days,” one of the officials told CNBC over the phone, adding that the ambassadors had given “great support” to the legal process.

The same official stated that “few legal issues” were considered before the trial proceeded.

A second official said the Commission is taking this step to ensure that upcoming deliveries are as expected.

When a European Commission spokesman was contacted by CNBC on Thursday, he said: “It is critical that we ensure the delivery of a sufficient number of cans in line with the company’s previous commitments.”

“Together with the member states, we are examining all possibilities to achieve this,” said the same spokesman, without confirming or denying that legal action has been considered.

In March, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her disappointment with AstraZeneca during a press conference and said: “Unfortunately, AstraZeneca has produced too little and delivered too little. And of course this has painfully slowed the vaccination campaign. “

At the time, von der Leyen said the block was expecting 70 million cans from the company in the second quarter, compared to an originally expected 180 million.

Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, told EU lawmakers in February that low yields in EU manufacturing facilities were causing the delays.

A medical worker holds a vial containing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Ronquieres, Belgium, on April 6, 2021.

Yves Herman | Reuters

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Health

Denmark says it’s completely stopping use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Denmark says it’s permanently stopping use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Denmark became the first country on Wednesday to plan to permanently stop administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine a month after it stopped using it after reports that a small number of recipients had developed a rare but serious bleeding disorder.

The country’s health authority director-general Soeren Brostroem said Denmark could stop using the vaccine as the pandemic was under control and it could rely on two other vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

The Danish announcement is another setback for the AstraZeneca shot, which is easy to store and relatively cheap, and should serve as the basis for vaccination campaigns around the world.

The country initially stopped using the vaccine on March 11, along with Iceland and Norway. Several other European countries including France, Germany and Italy followed suit last month.

The European Union’s Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency, later recommended countries continue to use the vaccine, saying its benefits far outweighed the potential risks for most people.

Last week, the European regulator listed blood clots as a possible very rare side effect of the vaccine.

Several countries that suspended and resumed use of the vaccine have since announced that they will discontinue use in younger people. The UK, which has given around 20 million AstraZeneca doses, said it would offer alternative vaccines to people under 30.

“Based on the scientific evidence, our overall assessment is that there is a real risk of serious side effects associated with using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine,” said Danish health official Dr. Brostroem in a statement. “We have therefore decided to remove the vaccine from our vaccination program.”

“If Denmark were in a completely different situation, for example in the midst of a violent third outbreak and a health system under pressure,” he added, “then I would not hesitate to use the vaccine, even if it were rare.” but serious complications related to its use. “

Danish health officials said they might reintroduce the AstraZeneca vaccine “if the situation changes”.

Public health officials have warned that stopping vaccine delivery like AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson could do more harm than good. They find that out of seven million people in the United States who were vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, six women had developed the rare blood clots – fewer than one in a million. It is not yet known if the vaccine had anything to do with the clots, but even if it does, the risk is lower than being struck by lightning in any given year (one in 500,000).

Denmark, with a population of 5.8 million, managed to contain the pandemic better than its neighbor Sweden or many other European countries. As of Wednesday, Denmark had recorded 2,447 deaths related to Covid.

Nearly a million people in the country have received at least a first dose of a vaccine, 77 percent of them from Pfizer, according to the Danish Serum Institute. Around 15 percent received an initial dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine before authorities stopped using it last month, and the remaining 8 percent received the Moderna vaccine.

The country’s health officials said people who received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be offered a different vaccine for their second dose.

Jasmina Nielsen contributed to the reporting.

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Health

AstraZeneca Vaccine and Blood Clots: What Is Recognized So Far

AstraZeneca Vaccine and Blood Clots: What Is Known So Far

Still, German researchers have said these clots were more common in recipients of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine than in people who had never received the shot.

European regulators had recommended that recipients of the vaccine seek medical help for a number of possible symptoms, including leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain, severe and persistent headache or blurred vision, and tiny spots of blood under the skin outside of the area where the Injection was given was given.

However, these symptoms were so vague that the UK emergency departments almost immediately saw an increase in patients worried they were as they were described. As a result, some emergency physicians have asked for more central guidance on how to deal with what they termed largely unnecessary hospital visits.

German researchers have described special blood tests that can help diagnose the disorder and have suggested treatment with a blood product called intravenous immunoglobulin, which is used to treat various immune disorders.

Drugs called anticoagulants or blood thinners can also be given but are not used frequently – heparin – because the vaccine-related condition is very similar to that rarely seen in people given heparin.

Other vaccines, particularly those given to children for measles, mumps, and rubella, have been linked to transient low levels of platelets, an essential component of blood clotting.

Reduced platelet counts have been reported in a small number of patients who received the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines. One recipient, a doctor in Florida, died of a cerebral haemorrhage when his platelet counts failed to restore, and others were hospitalized. US health officials have stated that the cases are being investigated, but they have not reported the results of those reviews and have yet to advise that they are linked to the vaccines.