Just on the day when the EMA has given the green light to the Janssen vaccine of Johnson & Johnson, interim news arrives on the vaccine front. There Denmark for example suspended for 14 days the administration of the Astrazeneca anti-Covid vaccine. This was communicated by the health authority of the Scandinavian country, explaining that the decision was taken after "the reporting of serious cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated with the vaccine" of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, which has already been distributed to carpet right in the United Kingdom and in many other countries including Italy (where it is currently the most administered). The National Board of Health also referred to a case of death in the country, which has fewer than 6 million inhabitants and which has already recorded 218.000 cases of contagion since the beginning of the pandemic, with almost 2.400 total deaths.
"At the moment it cannot be established whether there is a connection between the vaccine and blood clots", specifies however the Danish Health and Medicines Authority. The break will therefore be two weeks, during which the health authorities will carry out new tests on the vaccine and reserves the right to make new evaluations on its use by the end of March. The momentary stop at Astrazeneca has forced Denmark to review the entire vaccination plan, which for now has shelved the disputed vaccine and whose deadline has therefore been postponed by a month, to 15 August. The end of the campaign had previously been postponed from June 27 to July 18, due to delays in the delivery of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Just a week ago Denmark, together with theAustria (which in turn decided to stop at Astrazeneca, after that of Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway and Latvia), had become the protagonist of a tear against the European Union, creating an independent axis with Israel for the production and distribution of vaccines. Israel for many weeks was the fastest and most effective country in the world in administering the anti-Covid serum (now it has been surpassed from Chile), and the benefits of a blanket campaign are already visible: many activities have resumed thanks also to the vaccinated "license", a system that Denmark and Austria, frustrated by European slowness, would be thinking of copying to reopen concerts, swimming pools and gyms.
The Copenhagen decision also sparked controversy and reactions in Italy, where a statement from theAIFA, the Italian Medicines Agency, which has decided to suspend a single batch of the vaccine, the one to which the doses with which two soldiers in Sicily were vaccinated, then deceased (also in this case, the correlation is to be demonstrated).
Here is the Aifa press release: "Following the reporting of some serious adverse events, in conjunction with the administration of doses belonging to the Abv2856 batch of the AstraZeneca anti Covid-19 vaccine, Aifa has decided as a precaution to issue a ban on the use of this lot throughout the national territory and reserves the right to take further measures, where necessary, also in close coordination with the EMA, the European medicines agency. To date, no causal link has been established between the administration of the vaccine and these events. Aifa is carrying out all the necessary checks, acquiring clinical documentation in close collaboration with the Nas and the competent authorities. The samples of this lot will be analyzed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Aifa will promptly communicate any new information that should become available".
