AstraZeneca vaccine is now suspended in a majority of European countries -

Christophe Ena / AP / SIPA

  • This Monday, Emmanuel Macron took the decision to "suspend as a precaution" the vaccination against the coronavirus by AstraZeneca, pending an opinion from the European regulator.

  • A decision already taken by many European countries, including Germany a few minutes earlier.

  • Why such a choice in the midst of an epidemic?

This Monday, France suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine until an opinion from the European drug regulator, just minutes after Germany had taken the same decision, in the name of a principle of "precaution".

These two European giants join a long list of nations that have suspended the British vaccine.

It all started on March 11.

Denmark is the first country to suspend the vaccine "after reports of serious cases of blood clots" in people vaccinated.

Soon, Iceland and Norway made the same decision, with the Scandinavian nation reporting several cases of blood clots as well as cases of skin hemorrhages in vaccinated people.

Note that none of these countries has demonstrated a causal link between vaccination and the effects observed, but that they also apply a precautionary principle.

European dominoes

In the days that followed, Bulgaria, Ireland and the Netherlands also suspended the vaccine, due to the precautionary principle following the Danish and Finnish cases.

These countries, as well as Iceland, have not observed blood clots in their territories.

Other European countries (Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg) subsequently suspended AstraZeneca vaccines from a specific batch (ABV5300) after an Austrian nurse died of "serious blood clotting problems", some days after being vaccinated (again without proven causation).

Do not break the contract of trust

And the domino effect continues.

This Monday, it is therefore the turn of Germany, France and Italy to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

For Doctor Jérôme Marty, this is the right decision in view of the European trend: "There is one thing that absolutely must not be broken, it is the confidence of the population in vaccines, and that goes through full transparency.

For this caregiver, it is clear that once a dozen countries - European moreover - suspended their vaccinations, this would necessarily increase the mistrust of the French towards AstraZeneca.

He explains: “Confidence is fragile on vaccines against the coronavirus.

It is more prudent to suspend vaccination for a few days and to remove all doubts about this vaccine than to fuel mistrust ”.

The president of the Syndicat Union Française pour une Médecine Libre reminds us: lost confidence does not take a few days to return.

Unlike the expertise of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which "will examine the information in more detail tomorrow [this Tuesday] and convened an extraordinary meeting on Thursday March 18 to conclude on the information collected and on any other measure which could be necessary, according to the terms of the press release released on Monday evening.

“In fact, we might as well wait,” also argues immuno-oncology researcher Eric Billy.

“Everyone is waiting for the results of the EMA, which has data that we do not have.

The tendency would be to say that England has not seen any effects after vaccinating more people than the entire European Union put together, but let's wait for the EMA.

Just as you shouldn't be paranoid, you shouldn't be overconfident, ”he continues.

The EMA said on Monday that "the total number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people does not seem to be greater than that observed in the general population".

"The EMA currently remains of the opinion that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects," she wrote herself. in its press release.

Too much vigilance?

Is the suspension then justified in terms of health in France?

In the 4th report of its “Pharmacovigilance survey of the Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca”, for the week of February 26 to March 4, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) noted ten hematological cases, including three serious, identified in the country.

Sufficient according to her to be the subject of attention because of the alerts sent by other national agencies in Europe, in particular around lot ABV5300.

“The difficulty will be to know if the frequency of appearance of these serious cases is in the average of the normal population or if it is higher.

The concern is that with AstraZeneca, any event occurring after vaccination is immediately seen as caused by it.

There is a kind of paranoia around this vaccine, where everything is seen as causality, while care must be taken not to confuse correlation and causality, ”notes Eric Billy.

Jérôme Marty agrees: “There is undoubtedly an overcrowding of vigilance around this vaccine.

But if it's a matter of a few days, you might as well take the time to rebuild confidence.

“Anyway, as the general practitioner points out, the doses are starting to become scarce.

The almost perfect opportunity to do a checkpoint.

Check and reassure, then better vaccinate.

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