European countries stop AstraZeneca vaccine, WHO terms it safe

GENEVA: Some of the largest countries of the European Union (EU) have joined the stream of states who stopped their rollouts of AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday, March 15, over the fears of blood clot. Italy, Germany and France have paused the rollouts and were later joined by Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Latvia. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Europe’s watchdog of medicines have termed it safe for usage. Both the organisations will hold special meetings after a group of countries decided to halt the use of vaccine pending further review.

This suspension will be a major blow to global immunisation program which experts hope will contribute towards the end of pandemic which has already caused the death of over 2.6 million globally. Indonesia also joined the group announcing the delay in rollout of the jab which is cheaper than its competition and was termed as the vaccination choice for poor countries. WHO insisted that the countries should continue the usage of AstraZeneca vaccine and that the organisation has called for the meeting of its experts to discuss the safety of vaccine.

Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO, said that the organisation does not want the countries to panic and would recommend the countries to continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is to hold a special meeting on Thursday, March 18, and it also reinforced the WHO’s stand on vaccine and said that it is better to take the vaccine than not. The United Kingdom (UK) has given out more than 11 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which is more than the entire EU and that too without any major issues.