France, Germany and Italy have suspended use of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc. (LON: AZN) and Oxford University citing safety claims against the jab. In the last two weeks several countries rolling out the vaccine have been reporting serious side effects among them blood clots.
Europe has been on the forefront suspending roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Last week, Norway and Denmark suspended roll out of the vaccine following reported isolated cases of bleeding, low platelet count and blood clotting.
Bulgaria and Iceland were the second in line to suspend the vaccine then followed Netherlands and Ireland suspending the vaccine on March 14.
In response to the matter, World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s yet to be established if the side effects are linked to this specific vaccine. The Director General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an advisory committee meeting will be held on March 16 to decide the fate of the vaccine.
Soumya Swaminathan, a senior scientist in WHO said as much as many stories are making rounds no death has been reported linked to any COVI-19 vaccines. “We do not want people to panic. There has been no association, so far, pinpointed between so-called thromboembolic events,” added the scientist.
All of the tree countries gave their reasons for suspending the vaccine all of then ruling out any political motives behind the suspension.
“The decision taken, in conformity also with our European policy, is to suspend, out of precaution, vaccination with the AZ shot, hoping that we can resume quickly if the EMA’s guidance allows,” said France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
