Germany and France have announced that they will prevent vaccination of the new coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and others, saying that a blood clot was confirmed after vaccination.
The company is emphasizing safety, and EU-European Union drug regulators will meet on the 18th this week to decide what to do next.
Regarding vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and others, some European countries have postponed vaccination because there are cases where blood clots were confirmed after vaccination, and on the 15th, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain The government has announced that it will suspend vaccination as a precautionary measure.
Each country will wait for the EU drug regulator EMA = European Medicines Agency to respond before deciding to resume vaccination.
Regarding this, EMA announced that it will hold an extraordinary safety committee meeting on the 18th of this week to announce future measures.
So far, the EMA has stated that "the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of not vaccination."
The UK has also indicated that it will continue to inoculate.
AstraZeneca announces statement that it can be used with confidence
AstraZeneca, which developed the vaccine in collaboration with Oxford University, issued a statement on the 14th that the vaccine can be used with confidence based on scientific grounds.
In the statement, as a result of checking the data of more than 17 million people who have been vaccinated in the EU = European Union and the United Kingdom, there is no evidence that the risk of thrombosis etc. increases depending on age, gender, vaccine production time, etc. It is said.
On top of that, safety is our top priority, and we will continue to carefully monitor the situation.
Emergency use permit examination Expected to start soon in the US
Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, said in an interview with Reuters on the 15th that the examination of permission for emergency use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to begin soon in the United States.
On the other hand, about the fact that some European countries have postponed the vaccination of AstraZeneca because blood clots were confirmed after vaccination, Mr. Collins said, "Is the vaccinated person more likely to have blood clots? Has not been clarified yet. "
WHO reports, evaluations and discussions in each country
WHO = World Health Organization Secretary-General Tedros said at a regular press conference on the 15th that several countries were proactively suspending vaccination after receiving reports that blood clots were confirmed after vaccination with AstraZeneca and other vaccines. Said that he was aware of.
"It's not necessarily related to vaccination, and investigations are routine," said Tedros.
He said an international advisory board investigating vaccine safety was evaluating reports from each country and would meet on the 16th for further discussion.
"Vaccine safety is paramount," said Chief Scientist Swaminasan. "There is no 100%, completely safe vaccine, and one in a million people will have problems. But we need to think about the benefits of protecting people from the illnesses that kill millions of people, "he stressed the idea that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.