The Guardian
More reports, which have established link between AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines with rare blood clotting disorder may fuel vaccine hesitancy and rejection in Nigeria.
Indeed, what was a worrisome suspicion four weeks ago is now widely accepted: The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause a disorder characterised by dangerous blood clots and low platelet counts.
In Europe, at least 222 suspected cases have been reported among 34 million who have received their first dose of the vaccine. More than 30 have died. About nine in 10 million people have reported blood clots after taking Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine while 39 people in 10 million have reported same after taking AstraZeneca.
The United States (U.S.) Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine over six reported U.S. cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.
The six reported cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States. In South Africa, Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, on Tuesday evening announced the suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout in the country. Mkhize said the decision was taken following the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to temporarily pause the J&J vaccine programme in the USA.
In taking the decision, Mkhize said that the FDA recommendation should not be taken lightly. “Based on their advice, we have determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated,” he said.
Denmark also announced Tuesday that it would stop using the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects. Despite recommendations from the World Health Organisation and European medicines watchdog to continue using the inoculation, “Denmark’s vaccination campaign will go ahead without the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Health Authority director Soren Brostrom said at a news conference.
Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca jab in its vaccination rollout. More than a dozen countries followed suit. All but a few have since resumed use of the vaccine after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) emphasized the benefits of the vaccine and deemed it “safe and effective.”
This development has dealt a fresh blow to the world’s vaccination drive. Though it is a small number of unusual clotting cases, but experts fear it will erode vaccine confidence.
Outside of the U.S., Johnson & Johnson said it would delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe, where several countries were due to begin administering shots this week.
South Africa, which has been hit hard by a more contagious variant of the virus, has halted use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a precautionary measure. Australia said it will not purchase any doses from the company, citing concerns over it being the same type as the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The European Union ordered 200 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in 2021 and authorized its use on March 11, but has not yet started widespread distribution.
An EU official said the European Commission is seeking “urgent clarification” from Johnson & Johnson over the company’s “unexpected” delays to deploy across Europe.
France said yesterday that it will move ahead with administering the 200,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine it has received. The UK has ordered 30 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but has not yet authorized its use.
MEANWHILE, revelations that both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines may have rare side effects could also have enormous implications for low- and middle-income countries.
These two vaccines, which are cheaper and easier to store and transport than Pfizer and Moderna, are seen as crucial to immunizing developing nations. Both have pledged to sell hundreds of millions of doses through the COVAX initiative, a vaccine-sharing scheme affiliated with the World Health Organization.
The Johnson & Johnson news is particularly painful for South Africa, which was forced to ditch its AstraZeneca vaccination campaign in February after a small preliminary trial showed that the shots offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness caused by the country’s dominant variant of the virus. The government quickly pivoted to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, announcing that it had secured nine million doses at $10 a dose.
INTERESTINGLY, in Nigeria, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) are yet to raise a red flag on AstraZeneca vaccine.
As at yesterday, a total of 1,043,737 have been vaccinated in the country with the first dose of AstraZeneca. All 36 states of the federation, including Kogi State that earlier hesitated in rolling out vaccination campaign have been reached. Lagos leads with 192,061, followed by Kano, 56,942; Kaduna, 55,604, and FCT, 44,098. The state with the least vaccination figure is Kogi, 5,568.
Critics say the blood clotting may be connected to how the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vector vaccine, the same type as AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine.
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