AstraZeneca vaccinations stopped
Denmark becomes the first country to stop use of the vaccine over rare side effects.
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Denmark is stopping all use of the AstraZeneca vaccine and removing it from the vaccination schedule entirely.
The reason for the drastic decision is that Danish-Norwegian registry studies found a higher than expected frequency in the number of rare side effects after AstraZeneca vaccination, particularly blood clotting occurring in veins in the brain.
Denmark’s National Health Board Director General Søren Brostrøm.
"Based on the scientific findings, our overall assessment is there is a real risk of severe side effects associated with using the AstraZeneca vaccine . We have, therefore, decided to remove the vaccine from our vaccination program.”
Brostrøm says the pandemic in Denmark is currently under control and the vaccination campaign has been making good progress without AstraZeneca.
“We must weigh this against the fact that we now have a known risk of severe adverse effects from vaccination with AstraZeneca, even if the risk in absolute terms is slight.”
The decision to remove AstraZeneca is going to impact Denmark’s vaccination schedule again pushing it back by five weeks. The target date to get everyone vaccinated is now early August.
The National Health Board says the 149,000 people in Denmark who have had a first AstraZeneca dose will be offered another vaccine “later.”
The Staten Serum Institut currently has 202,700 AstraZeneca doses in its freezers. It is unclear what will happen to those doses, although the National Health Board does say the vaccine could be reintroduced for use “if the situation changes.”
Denmark’s National Board of Health put the AstraZeneca vaccine on pause on March 11th due to reports of post-vaccination blood-clotting, decreased platelet counts, and bleeding. One person in Denmark died as a result of the rare side effects.
The European Medicines Agency recently concluded that there is likely a link between the side effects and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
It looks like it is not just Denmark either. The European Union appears to be turning its back on viral vector vaccines (AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson) and focusing entirely on mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech). Italian newspaper La Stampa is reporting that the E.U. will not renew its vaccine contracts with both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson when they expire. The newspaper reports the decision was reached in consultation with E.U. member countries.
The AstraZeneca roll out in the E.U. has been a disaster with terrible communication from the company, failed delivery targets, tense stand-offs with the bloc, and a warehouse of vaccine doses appearing to almost be deliberately concealed from European regulators.