The World Health Organization was quick to react to moves by European governments hoping to prevent a broader panic

More than a dozen countries have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, although Australia, Britain and Thailand are moving ahead with it. Moderna has begun a study that will test its vaccine in children, including babies as young as six months.
The suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine by most governments across Europe has further set back an already fraught inoculation campaign on the continent and threatened to rattle the vaccination effort in dozens of other countries around the world.

No country in the European Union is on pace to reach its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its population by September. Hundreds of millions of people across the continent are still constrained by some of the most severe coronavirus restrictions in the world, and millions more are facing the prospect of rules being tightened further to tackle a third wave of the coronavirus.

The head of the European Medicines Agency, speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, said that while the regulators were still studying concerns about the possibility of rare side effects with the AstraZeneca vaccine, including blood clots and abnormal bleeding, there was “no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions.”

“While the investigation is ongoing, we are currently still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization, outweigh the risk of the side effects,” said Emer Cooke, the agency’s executive director.

She said that the agency would provide a more detailed assessment after an emergency session on Thursday.

The European Union’s vaccine efforts have been marked by political infighting, mixed messaging to the public, a shortage of supply and a lack of solidarity. And with many member states’ vaccination strategies heavily reliant on the vaccine made by AstraZeneca, the decision to suspend its use while the bloc’s regulatory body looks into concerns about its safety will slow things down even more.

Spain joined France, Italy, Germany and others in halting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and the hesitancy of European governments may undermine public confidence in the vaccine, which could have implications far beyond Europe.

The World Health Organization was quick to react to moves by European governments, hoping to prevent a broader panic. It said on Monday that there was no evidence to suggest that the AstraZeneca vaccine was unsafe.

Millions of people in dozens of countries have received AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine with few reports of ill effects, and its prior testing in tens of thousands of people found it to be safe. All of the governments in Europe that suspended its use said they were acting simply out of an abundance of caution while the bloc’s regulatory body reviewed the data.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, was designed to be the workhorse of the global vaccination effort — with some two billion doses ordered for use in more than 70 countries this year.

It is being sold using a nonprofit model and is far cheaper than other vaccines. It can be stored more easily and has already started to be shipped to low- and middle-income countries that signed onto the global vaccine sharing program Covax.

As of Sunday, the European Union had nearly eight million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine sitting unused, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The 27 nations in the bloc, and three close neighbors, have between them vaccinated roughly 42 million people.

In contrast, the United States is now vaccinating more than 2.4 million people every day, with more than 100 million doses administered already.

While the AstraZeneca vaccine is already authorized in dozens of countries, it has not yet been approved by American regulators. The results from its clinical trial in the United States have not yet been reported, and the company has not sought emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

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