[ 2021-03-19 ]

Health chiefs confirm Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid jab safe to use
European countries rushed to resume use of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine yesterday
after regulators gave it their resounding
backing.

Germany, France and Italy are due to restart today
after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reached
a “clear scientific conclusion” that it was
safe.

Boris Johnson said the decision should put to bed
any concerns about the vaccine, stressing: “The
Oxford jab is safe and the Pfizer jab is safe. The
thing that isn’t safe is catching Covid.”

Boris Johnson said there would be no change to
plans for easing lockdown
Boris Johnson said there would be no change to
plans for easing lockdown
TOLGA AKMEN/REUTERS
He said he would be vaccinated today, adding:
“The centre where I’m getting jabbed is
currently using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for
those receiving their first dose, and that is the
one that I’ll be having.”

His comments came as Jean Castex, the French prime
minister, also said he would have the
Oxford-AstraZeneca jab today. In other
developments:

• There were hopes that millions of missing
vaccine doses would arrive from India at the end
of next month after a delay caused the NHS to warn
of a four-week vaccine drought.

• Johnson promised there would be no change to
plans for easing lockdown.

• The American company Moderna said it was
expecting to deliver its first batch of vaccines
to Britain next month.

• An Oxford University study found the Brazilian
variant may be less resistant to vaccines than had
been feared.

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• Fewer than one in 1,600 pupils, staff and
families tested positive for the coronavirus in
the first days of mass checks in schools.

• There were 6,303 new cases, with the seven-day
total down 2.8 per cent, and 95 deaths related to
Covid-19, with the weekly total down 33 per cent.

Emer Cooke, the EMA’s director, said an
investigation by scientists did not find a link
between the vaccine and blood clots, reports of
which had prompted 17 EU countries to suspend its
use in recent days. She added: “Its benefits in
protecting people from Covid-19 outweigh the
possible risks.”

The vaccine has been given to more than 17 million
people in Europe and the UK. Dr Sabine Straus, who
reviewed evidence for the EMA, said that the
number of blood clots reported after vaccination
was “lower than expected in the general
population”.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also said a review had
not found a link between blood clots in veins and
the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

It added that it was still looking at five cases
of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in combination
with low platelet counts in people who have had
the jab, but there was no evidence yet that the
condition was caused by the vaccine. The MHRA
said, however, that even if the cases were found
to be caused by the vaccine, the rarity of the
side-effect, below one per million doses, would
not prompt a halt in Britain.

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chairman of the
Commission on Human Medicines, said: “The risk
of dying from Covid, even when you’re in your
forties, is much higher. It’s about one in
1,000.”

Dr June Raine, the MHRA’s chief executive, said
that as a precaution anyone with a headache for
more than four days after vaccination, or with
bruising beyond the site of vaccination after a
few days, should seek medical attention.

Germany announced that it would resume
inoculations with OxfordAstraZeneca today. France
will resume vaccination this afternoon after
Castex said he would receive the jab “to show
that we can have complete confidence in it”.
Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, said
injections would restart this morning.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, noted a
“certain irony” in the European reluctance to
use the jab when the EU was threatening to seize
vaccines destined for Britain, and urged Brussels
to “live up to” its commitments.

Behind the story
Behind the scenes in Brussels there are deep
reservations over Ursula von der Leyen’s
declaration of new hostilities against Britain and
growing fears of a “vaccine war” that could
poison relations for decades (Bruno Waterfield
writes).

The European Commission president is a former
German defence minister, senior Christian Democrat
and protégée of Angela Merkel whose government
is in trouble over the European Union’s vaccine
rollout.

In what is keenly felt as a humiliation to the EU
after Brexit, 40 per cent of Britons have had
their first or second jab compared with only 12
per cent of EU citizens.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats face a kicking at
the polls with regional and national elections in
the next six months unless von der Leyen can blame
Britain for the low vaccination rate, accompanied
by sabre-rattling to show how tough Brussels can
be.

Her threat on Wednesday to trigger emergency
powers allowing the EU to seize factories making
jabs earmarked for Britain and to take over
patents to ensure supply would be a serious step
plunging the world into vaccine protectionism.

Officials and diplomats note that the plan has the
support of Germany, France and Italy in terms of
ratcheting up the pressure on Britain to share
vaccine production or face cuts in supply as well
as finding a convenient scapegoat for the EU’s
failings.

To prevent exports being blocked, the UK must, the
hawkish Franco-German-Italian camp insist, divert
AstraZeneca vaccines to the EU. The doves warn
that stopping shipments would tear down supply
chains that Europe’s pharmaceutical industry is
built on.

Source - The Times, UK

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