Germany, France, Italy, Spain halt AstraZeneca vaccinations

Major EU countries including, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain halted the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday after several reports of blood clots in Europe, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) insisted that it is safe to use.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, “We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue AstraZeneca vaccination.”

We do not find any connection between these events and the vaccine so far, she added, referring to reports of blood clots from various countries.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is holding a special meeting on Thursday, echoed the WHO’s calls for calm and said it was better to get the vaccine than not.

“The benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risks of side effects,” the agency said in a statement Monday.

Earlier, the Netherlands suspend the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Sunday following Denmark, Norway, Ireland, and Iceland.

The suspensions were not limited to Europe, Indonesia also announcing a delay to its rollout of the jab, while Thailand became the first country outside of Europe to do so on Friday.

ARR