THE HAGUE: Several countries suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Thursday over blood clot fears, prompting Europe’s medical agency to quickly reassure the public there were no known health risks linked to the jab. The melee over the vaccine came as the world marked one year since the pandemic was officially declared, and threatened to dim hopes that inoculations are the ticket to returning to normal life.
The virus has now killed more than 2.6 million people, subjected billions to anti-Covid restrictions, and left the global economy in tatters — an outcome unimaginable at the outset of the crisis.
A year in, several countries are looking to peel back restrictions put in place after second — or even third — waves and looking to ramp up vaccine rollouts as a way out of the crisis. But that momentum hit a snag Thursday as Denmark, Norway and Iceland all suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab over fears it could be linked to blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) quickly issued a statement seeking to assuage fears. “The information available so far indicates that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is no higher than that seen in the general population,” the EMA told AFP by email. The UK also spoke out, saying the jab was “safe and effective”.
“When people are asked to come forward and take it, they should do so in confidence,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said.
On Thursday, the EMA approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is stored at warmer temperatures than its competitors and is easier to distribute. “Authorities across the European Union will have another option to combat the pandemic and protect the lives and health of their citizens,” EMA chief Emer Cooke said in a statement.
Adding to the optimism on Thursday, a real-world study in Israel showed the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs to be 97 percent effective against symptomatic Covid cases, higher than originally thought.
Since first emerging in China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus has infected nearly 118 million people, with few parts of the globe left untouched. The World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic on March 11 last year as infection numbers were beginning to explode across Asia and Europe.
Today, more than 300 million vaccine doses have been administered in 140 countries, according to an AFP count.
And the sports world — after a year of cancelled or spectator-less matches — also looked to a return to normal thanks to more jabs. The International Olympic Committee said athletes at the Tokyo Games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games would be offered vaccines bought from China.
The announcement offered optimism the much-delayed Tokyo Olympics may actually move ahead safely this summer. Meanwhile, in the United States, congress passed one of its biggest stimulus efforts ever — a $1.9 trillion package that President Joe Biden said would give struggling American families a “fighting chance”. Vaccination efforts there have gained momentum in recent weeks, with Biden vowing to have enough doses in place within months for the entire population in a country that has already clocked some 529,000 deaths, the highest in the world.