WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Countries across Europe resume vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shoot on Friday, as leaders sought to reassure their populations after brief suspensions that cast doubt on a vaccine critical to ending the coronavirus pandemic.
The British and French prime ministers rolled up their sleeves, as did a handful of other senior politicians across the continent, where inoculation attempts have repeatedly stumbled and several countries are now re-enforcing lockdowns as infections proliferate in many places.
Britain is a notable exception: the outbreak there has subsided and the country is widely praised for its vaccination campaign, although it announced this week that it would also be hit by a shortage of supply.The UK has never stopped using AstraZeneca either. In contrast, the countries of the European Union are struggling to get vaccines to market quickly, and the vaccine interruption this week has only added to these problems.
The suspensions came after reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine, although international health agencies urged governments to go ahead with the shot because the benefits outweighed the risks. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said the vaccine does not increase the overall incidence of blood clots, although it could not rule out an association with a small number of rare clots.
The move paved the way for a slew of European countries, including Italy, France and Germany, to start using the vaccine again.
“It is clear that the withdrawal of the suspension is a great relief for us as we need to greatly accelerate the vaccination campaign,” said Dr. Giovanni Rezza, the head of prevention at the Italian Ministry of Health.
Rezza told reporters in Rome that Italy only reluctantly stopped the campaign out of an abundance of caution, but that it needed to be ramped up quickly to make up for lost time now.
He said Italy needed to more than double the 200,000 vaccinations a day that reached the country before the suspension to reach its goal of vaccinating 80% of the population by September.
Health experts have expressed concern that while the suspensions were short, they could still hurt confidence in the vaccine at a time when many people are already hesitant to take an injection developed so quickly. While many EU countries have grappled with such reluctance, it is even more worrying in developing countries who may not have another vaccine choice. Less expensive and easier to store than many competing products, AstraZeneca is at the forefront of vaccination in many poorer countries.
Amid these concerns, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received an AstraZeneca shot at St. Thomas’ Hospital in South London, where he received intensive care for COVID-19 last April.
“I literally didn’t feel anything and so it was really good, really fast and I can’t recommend it too strongly,” said Johnson, 56, as he left the hospital after his shot. “Everyone, if you get your report for a shot, go get it. It is the best for you, the best for your family and everyone else. “
Others given the opportunity on Friday included French Prime Minister Jean Castex, Slovenian President Borut Pahor and Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and a German governor. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said he would get the AstraZeneca shot when it comes time for his age group, saying his adult son got it in London.
“Therefore, there is absolutely no question about its safety,” Draghi, 73, told a news conference.
55-year-old Castex said he acted because he wanted to show full confidence in the photo, even though he is not yet eligible under French rules. The former director of the Pasteur Institute, Patrick Berche, told BFMTV that the move was “a very nice gesture”.
France has restarted the vaccine with some restrictions that seemed to reduce the risk of possible side effects even further.
Other countries resuming their use of AstraZeneca injections include Bulgaria, a country of 7 million people where only 355,000 people have been vaccinated with a first dose so far – the lowest number in the European Union.
But not everyone returned to the vaccine as quickly. Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the first country to stop using AstraZeneca, said they would wait another week before deciding to proceed. And Finland decided to interrupt the vaccine for the first time on Friday, saying it would suspend use for a week while investigating two suspected cases of blood clots.
While there are concerns that the pause has raised long-term doubts, some were relieved that the vaccine was back available Friday.
Marvin Brandl, 28, an ambulance worker, was among a group of health workers who received an injection in the German city of Cologne. He expressed confidence in all vaccines approved by the EU.
“When I found out last night that vaccination was possible again, I immediately made an appointment and was satisfied and grateful that I could get vaccinated,” Brandl said.
Authorities in Berlin said two major vaccination centers are reopening on Friday and people whose appointments have been canceled this week can get the vaccine over the weekend without making a new one.
After several stumbling blocks in vaccine rollout, EU governments are keen to fire again, especially as infections and hospitalizations are increasing dramatically in many countries, with many officials saying they are either entering or already in a ‘third wave’.
Infection rates in Germany are “now clearly exponential,” said Lars Schaade, deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute. Officials have warned the country could face a return to tougher lockdown measures by Easter.
In France, the government withdrew with orders for a hard lockdown for Paris and several other regions, but instead announced a patchwork of new restrictions despite an increasingly alarming situation in hospitals with a rise in COVID-19 patients .
In Poland, more people are wearing a ventilator than ever before since the start of the pandemic, and children make up a larger percentage of those admitted to hospital. Officials blame a more transmissible mutation first identified in Britain that is spreading like wildfire across the country, and they say the worst is yet to come. The Central European nation is gearing up to enter another nationwide lockdown on Saturday – albeit one less restrictive than the one imposed a year ago.
Hungary, meanwhile, has extended its lockdown restrictions for another week as a powerful wave breaks records every day – despite the country having the second highest vaccination coverage in the EU after Malta.
In Bosnia, which is not in the EU, the rising infections resulted in a lockdown in the capital on Friday. The Balkan country of 3.3 million inhabitants has yet to begin mass vaccination of its citizens and has kept relaxed measures and ski resorts open throughout the winter season.
Associated Press writers from across Europe contributed to this report.
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