Brussels Reporter
  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      DUP chief dismisses Irish and US calls to…

      May 21, 2022

      Europe

      Austria to lower hurdles for LGBT+ citizens to…

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

      Europe

      Brexit: UK ‘miscalculating’ over unilateral action to override…

      May 20, 2022May 21, 2022

      Europe

      Ukrainian woman, 3 children survive house bombing

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

      Europe

      US actor and activist Forest Whitaker honoured at…

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business

Brussels Reporter

  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      DUP chief dismisses Irish and US calls to…

      May 21, 2022

      Europe

      Austria to lower hurdles for LGBT+ citizens to…

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

      Europe

      Brexit: UK ‘miscalculating’ over unilateral action to override…

      May 20, 2022May 21, 2022

      Europe

      Ukrainian woman, 3 children survive house bombing

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

      Europe

      US actor and activist Forest Whitaker honoured at…

      May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
Home Brussels EU regulator’s decision opens door for rollout of J&J vaccine
BrusselsFeatured

EU regulator’s decision opens door for rollout of J&J vaccine

by editor April 20, 2021April 21, 2021
April 20, 2021April 21, 2021

It’s the news EU countries were hoping for: The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is safe to use, according to the EU drugs regulator.

Like the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, there appears to be a link to very rare and unusual blood clots combined with low blood platelets. However, the risk is so low, it’s dwarfed by the benefits of using the vaccine to prevent illness and death from COVID-19.

“I have to stress again that [these unusual side effects] are very rare, and that, in the vast majority of cases, these vaccines are going to prevent death and hospitalization from COVID-19,” said Emer Cooke, executive director of the European Medicines Agency, during a press briefing.

A handful of EU countries paused the rollout of the first, much-anticipated batches of the single-shot jab, while the agency reviewed eight unusual cases of thromboembolism with thrombocytopenia following vaccination in the U.S.

The Netherlands was among them. It announced Tuesday it will now start using the jab, according to de Telegraaf. In Belgium, which also suspended its use, the health minister has “requested an opinion from the vaccination task force and the Superior Health Council by Friday”, reported le Soir.

The rest of Europe now has the peace of mind to continue using the jab, EU officials said.

“I urge [EU] Member States to follow the opinion of our experts,” tweeted Stella Kyriakides, EU health commissioner. “Vaccinations save lives.”

“This is good news for the rollout of vaccination campaigns across the EU,” tweeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Shipments to Europe will also resume, Johnson & Johnson said after the EMA’s decision.

It will come as some relief to EU countries grappling with high infection rates after the U.S. drugmaker announced last week it was “proactively” delaying deliveries over the blood clot concerns. The EU is set to receive 55 million doses by the end of June.

Reopening the door to J&J deliveries, according to Peter Liese, German MEP and health spokesman for the European People’s Party, could result in herd immunity in Europe over the summer.

“In the coming weeks, the focus will no longer be on the vaccine shortage, but on whether the vaccine is being vaccinated efficiently and whether enough people are getting vaccinated,” he said. “If this works well, corona will be much less scary in just a few months.”

Class effect?

With rollout of the J&J vaccine resuming, health care professionals and citizens receiving the jabs need to be extra vigilant for the signs and symptoms of possible blood clots, as they are with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

The good news is that people in the EU are now “very aware” of this potential side effect with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, said Sabine Straus, head of EMA’s drug safety committee PRAC, and they can apply this vigilance to the J&J jab.

Early treatment can “help those affected” and “avoid further complications”, she added.

The EMA’s experience in assessing these unusual blood clots associated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was also most likely why Europe is ahead of its U.S. counterparts in reaching a decision on the J&J jab, Cooke said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet again on April 23 for further discussion, according to J&J.

However, despite the EMA’s experience, it said it’s too early to tell if this possible side effect was linked to the adenovirus viral vector technology, which both jabs use. To date, there have been eight cases with J&J out of 7 million doses; 287 cases from 59 million doses with Oxford/AstraZeneca; 25 cases with BioNTech/Pfizer; and 5 cases with Moderna.

“It might be possible that there is a class effect, but I think it’s really too early to conclude on that yet,” said Straus.

There are also several differences between the vaccines’ technology, she noted. Oxford/AstraZeneca uses a chimp adenovirus, while J&J uses a human version. There are also differences between the spike protein in each vaccine.

But since the unusual blood clot cases reviewed after both adenovirus vaccines “have such a striking similarity” the committee felt confident that the J&J cases had a “strong association” with the vaccine, she said. Just like with Oxford/AstraZeneca’s jab, the effects are very similar to heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, or low counts of blood platelets combined with blood clots.

But cases are extremely rare. In the U.S. sample noted above, the eight reports of odd thrombosis with thrombocytopenia were mostly among women aged 18 to 49, with one death. They included blood clots in the brain, abdomen and arteries, together with low levels of blood platelets and sometimes bleeding.

Cooke also addressed Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, saying the agency had not yet seen this effect. But it also has not begun assessing side effect data as part of its rolling review of that jab, as it’s still in the “early stage” of the review.

It will now be down to EU countries to decide how they choose to use the vaccine, and whether they opt to restrict its use, as many countries have done for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, or follow the advice of the EMA.

Ashleigh Furlong contributed reporting.

Source link

previous post
President Joe Biden praying for ‘right’ verdict in Derek Chauvin trial
next post
Football Super League in tatters after clubs pull out

Related Posts

N-VA cancels anti-migration pact campaign, but is it...

December 5, 2018

Yellow Vests stage 4am wake up for Belgian...

March 14, 2019

“Print money to save the climate”, says EMP...

March 10, 2019

Women earn 8% less than men

April 30, 2019

Commission approves bill to make pre-school education free...

February 21, 2019

Footgate super-grass is misuse of law on whistle-blowers,...

November 24, 2018

The secret meeting of Belgium's athletics bosses

March 12, 2019

Uber’s fare hikes may not be enough to...

April 5, 2022

Goethe-Institut Brussels and BOZAR Cinema present Thomas Heises...

March 2, 2020

European Parliament flouts EU law over staff bank...

June 9, 2021
Promotion Image

Recent Posts

  • DUP chief dismisses Irish and US calls to drop veto on Belfast power-sharing
  • Biden plan to end US migrant expulsion policy blocked
  • Austria to lower hurdles for LGBT+ citizens to donate blood
  • Brexit: UK ‘miscalculating’ over unilateral action to override treaty, says Ireland’s Coveney
  • Ukraine conflict: Missile strike on cultural centre ‘evil’ – Zelensky
Promotion Image

GO!

Lifestyle

  • Scientists are using satellites to count elephants from space for the first time

  • France: Hospital workers demand more resources to fight COVID-19

  • Alexei Navalny: Millions watch jailed critic's 'Putin palace' film

  • Covid vaccine: WHO warns of ‘catastrophic moral failure’

  • Belgium looks good in white

Popular Posts

  • 1

    Putin says sanctions over Ukraine are like a declaration of war

    March 5, 2022
  • 2

    Canada rules Iran’s downing of civilian plane was ‘terrorist act’

    May 21, 2021
  • 3

    German IS bride given two-year suspended prison sentence

    May 18, 2022

Editor’s Choices

  • Sociopath ING or a blockchain of corruption from a well-known financial group

    May 24, 2021
  • Pfizer, AstraZeneca COVID jabs ‘highly effective’ against India variant, study shows

    May 23, 2021
  • G20 leaders at Rome summit pledge more vaccines for poorer countries

    May 21, 2021

Opinions

  • DUP chief dismisses Irish and US calls to drop veto on Belfast power-sharing

    May 21, 2022
  • Belgium to ease almost all coronavirus rules, dropping face masks in public transport

    May 20, 2022
  • Boris Johnson beefs up Downing Street in wake of Partygate saga

    May 20, 2022

@2018-2021 - Brussels Reporter (www.brusselsreporter.com). All Right Reserved.