PANDEMIC CRITICALLY CONSIDERED Denmark permanently discontin | Corona Investigative

PANDEMIC CRITICALLY CONSIDERED


Denmark permanently discontinues vaccinations with AstraZeneca

Denmark is now permanently discontinuing the use of AstraZeneca's Corona vaccine. The reason is the sinus vein thrombosis, which has been known for some time and rarely occurs as a side effect.

Denmark is the first EU country to abandon AstraZeneca's Corona vaccine. The vaccination campaign will continue without the British-Swedish company's preparation, the director of the Danish Health Administration, Søren Brostrøm, announced Wednesday at a press conference in Copenhagen.

There is a link between AstraZeneca's vaccine and very rare cases of unusual blood clots, bleeding and low platelet counts, Brostrøm's agency said. This, along with the fact that the Corona pandemic is currently under control in Denmark and that other vaccines against Covid-19 are available, was instrumental in the decision that the vaccination program would continue without AstraZeneca, he said. The Danish vaccination campaign will now last several weeks longer than planned without AstraZeneca.

Denmark had suspended vaccinations with AstraZeneca's drug on March 11 as a precautionary measure, initially for 14 days. This was due to reports of isolated severe cases of a rare combination of blood clots, bleeding and low platelet counts in people who had previously been vaccinated against Covid-19, including deaths. Subsequently, several other countries had also temporarily halted use of the vaccine. According to the newspaper Politiken, the drug from Johnson & Johnson will also temporarily not be administered. This is likely to delay the vaccination schedule by several weeks.

EMA sees more benefit than risk
In Germany, the drug is now used only for people aged 60 and older because the rare side effect (several dozen cases in millions vaccinated), mostly due to an autoimmune reaction, occurred only in younger patients.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) continues to see more benefit than risk in the use of AstraZeneca's Corona vaccine. It said a possible link between the active ingredient and rare cases of thrombosis has been established. However, Covid still leads to thousands of new infections and hospitalizations every day - the vaccine is an important tool in the fight against the pandemic, according to head Emer Cooke.

Czech Republic wants to buy AstraZeneca doses from Denmark
Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has expressed interest in Denmark's remaining doses. "We are ready to buy AstraZeneca from Denmark," Interior Minister Jan Hamácek wrote Wednesday on Twitter. It was unclear, meanwhile, whether such a deal would even be possible under EU procurement rules.

Hamácek also heads the Foreign Ministry in Prague on an acting basis. Efforts are being made to procure vaccine around the world, the Social Democrat stressed. To this end, he said, he would travel to Moscow on Monday to negotiate possible supplies of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V.


Source: https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article230319131/Daenemark-stellt-Impfungen-mit-AstraZeneca-dauerhaft-ein.html

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