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HEALTH-VIRUS
EU health agency to rule on troubled AstraZeneca jab
THE HAGUE, March 18, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Europe’s medical regulator is set to
give its verdict on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday,
following a chaotic few weeks that has seen nations suspend its use over
blood clot fears.
There are “a number of options” open to scientists at the European
Medicines Agency, its chief said earlier this week, including suspending
approval for the jab in the EU, with the bloc’s innoculation programme
already scrambling for vaccines.
Despite more than a dozen countries pausing rollouts, the EMA says it has
found “no indication” of a serious problem and that the number of post-jab
blood clots is no higher than it is among the general, unvaccinated
population.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday it was better to take the
AstraZeneca vaccine than not — adding that it was looking into available
data on the shot.
The furore around the jab has marred the global vaccine drive aimed at
ending a pandemic that has killed more than 2.6 million people, and comes as
several countries report jumps in new cases.
France recorded its highest daily caseload in nearly four months
Wednesday, with authorities set to announce measures affecting 18 million
people, including a possible weekend lockdown for the hard-hit Paris region.
Caseloads are also spiking in Iraq and India, where Prime Minister Narendra
Modi called for “quick and decisive steps” to halt a new wave of infections
in the world’s second most populous country.
AstraZeneca’s shot, among the cheapest available and easier to store and
transport than some of its rivals has been billed as the vaccine of choice
for poorer nations.
It is currently a vital part of Covax, which was set up to procure Covid-
19 vaccines and ensure their equitable distribution around the world.
India said Wednesday it would continue to roll out the AstraZeneca jabs —
produced by its Serum Institute — in its huge immunisation programme “with
full vigour.”
– Sinovac goes south –
Chile said it had immunised 49 scientists and members of its armed forces
working at a research station in the icy wastes of Antarctica, the first
innoculations on the southernmost continent.
People stationed at two other Chilean bases in Antarctica had also been
due to receive their first doses of China’s Sinovac jab, but those were
delayed by adverse weather conditions, Victor Videla, the doctor in charge of
the innoculation programme, told AFP.
Antarctica was one of the last places on Earth to be affected by the
virus, but on December 21, an outbreak was reported at a Chilean army base,
with 36 people infected.
On the other side of the South Pacific, New Zealand said Thursday its
economy contracted at a record rate in 2020, with the government blaming a
hard lockdown last year that was instrumental in helping contain the virus.
GDP shrank 2.9 percent the statistics agency said, although Finance
Minister Grant Robertson pointed out New Zealand’s economy had outperformed
those of Australia, Britain, the United States and Japan.
In Ireland, St Patrick’s day celebrations were dampened for a second year
running with the country still facing restrictions — after the first wave of
anti-virus measures shut the party down last year.
“It’s a year on now and… we seem to be back where we started,” said
publican Tom Cleary, perched on a barstool in Dublin next to a Guinness tap
fashioned in the shape of the Celtic harp.
“It’s sad there’s no end in sight,” he told AFP. “I mean, will we be here
next St Patrick’s Day with the same problems?”
– ‘Made me more humane’ –
Being vaccinated has allowed Colombian doctor Norberto Medina to return to
his job at an intensive care unit in the capital Bogota feeling “more
relaxed”.
Medina, 41, has lived all facets of the pandemic, seeing patients die on
his ward, nursing others back to health — and eventually staring death in
the face when he contracted the virus himself.
“The pandemic has changed me forever,” he told AFP after he returned to
work, 54 days after he was diagnosed.
“It has made me more humane.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1114 hrs