By John Miller
ZURICH, April 29 (Reuters) - Denmark's top health official
said on Thursday "the only ethical, correct decision" for some
countries facing COVID-19 crises is to continue giving
AstraZeneca's vaccine, though his nation halted use over very
rare clotting concerns.
Soren Brostrom, speaking at a Danish Health
Authority-sponsored scientific conference over the clotting, was
responding to a question over whether Denmark's decision could
hurt confidence in AstraZeneca's shot around the world,
including developing nations getting it via the global COVAX
vaccine-sharing programme.
Brostrom acknowledged his agency's decision was made more
difficult by fears people elsewhere could respond with increased
vaccine hesitancy, but said that stopping AstraZeneca
vaccinations matched Denmark's situation.
Denmark is reporting fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19
infections daily and has access to shots from Moderna
and Pfizer, while India is reporting record numbers of
daily infections, thousands of deaths and vaccine shortages.
"We're still retaining the option of using the AstraZeneca
vaccine. I would not hesitate to use the AstraZeneca vaccine in
Denmark, even with the knowledge I have today, if I were in a
different context," Brostrom said.
"And in different countries, right now, around the globe,
the only ethical, correct decision is to use the AstraZeneca
vaccine."
British and European drug regulators added warnings to
AstraZeneca's vaccine over the extremely rare clots
combined with low blood platelet counts, while U.S. officials
followed suit with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine after
similar events.
But regulators also reiterated that the vaccines' benefits
in preventing COVID-19 outweigh risks of clotting.
Norway delayed a decision on restarting with AstraZeneca's
shot until May, while other countries added age limits.
WHO-Europe vaccination expert Siddhartha Datta, another
conference speaker, said decisions to put limits on vaccines can
have positive impacts, too, by encouraging dialogue about shots.
"Any decision made has to be communicated openly, in a
transparent manner," Datta said. "This ultimately will instill
confidence in this vaccine, and in other vaccines. This is not
the last vaccine that we'll be using on the horizon."
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Toby Chopra and Giles
Elgood)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
