Five countries suspend use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Austria’s national medicines regulator has suspended use of a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine after four patients were diagnosed with dangerous blood clotting conditions after receiving the jab, PA reports.

Four other countries - Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia - have suspended its use to allow time for the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) to conduct an investigation.

Europe’s medicines watchdog said a preliminary probe showed that the batch of vaccines used in Austria was not likely to blame for the death of a nurse, aged 49, who received a jab.

The nurse died of multiple thrombosis - formation of blood clots within blood vessels - 10 days after their vaccine, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.

A second patient was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism - where blockages form in the arteries in the lungs - but is now recovering.

As of Tuesday, two other clotting conditions had been identified in patients that had received a dose from the same batch.

The EMA said there is currently no evidence that the vaccine caused the conditions, and that thrombosis is not listed as a potential side effect of the vaccine.

It said that the batch labelled ABV5300 comprised one million doses and had been delivered to 17 EU countries.

The number of daily Covid fatalities has hit yet another new high in Brazil, with the news that another2,286 Brazilians had lost their lives.

The latest high, which followed a record 1,972 deaths on Tuesday, took the South American country’s total death toll to more than 270,000, second only to the US.
Hours earlier Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, excoriated what he called President Jair Bolsonaro’s “moronic” and inept response to the pandemic.

“Lots of these deaths could have been avoided had we had a government which had done basic things,” Lula said, attacking how Bolsonaro had failed to buy vaccines and trivialized Covid-19 as a “little flu” about which only only “pansies” and “cowards” were concerned.

Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, has shown scant sympathy for Brazilian victims of Covid, last week telling citizens to stop “whining” about the pandemic.

Speaking on Wednesday Lula said: “I want to express my solidarity with the victims of coronavirus, the relatives of the victims ... and above all with the heroes and heroines of our public health service.”

“Had it not been for our national health service we would have lost so many more people than we have lost,” he added.

The WHO wants to see healthcare workers in all countries being vaccinated within the first 100 days of 2021.

Catton said that was the start line rather than the finish line, and voiced “grave concerns” at the unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries.

For nurses, facing an elevated risk of infection, immunisation “is about their right to being protected at work,” he said.

“Not being protected at work adds to their distress.”

Recalling the public appreciation shown towards nurses in the early stages of the pandemic, Catton said that now, “overwhelmingly, nurses would rather be getting their vaccine than a round of applause”.

The ICN strongly recommended that all nurses take a Covid-19 jab.

“It is an issue of protection and safety for patients,” Catton said.

“If somebody doesn’t have the vaccine then it may well be that you have to look at redeploying them to other areas.”

In a report, the International Council of Nurses said the pandemic “could trigger a mass exodus from the profession”, from as early as the second half of 2021. The global nurse shortage could widen to nearly 13 million, it added.

“We could be on a precipice,” said Catton, recalling that it took three to four years of training to produce a novice nurse.

He said nurses had done a “phenomenal” job “to lead the world through this pandemic”, saying they would share an equal platform with the vaccine creators in the eventual history of Covid-19.

But once the pandemic has passed, frazzled nurses will then have to deal with all the unmet healthcare needs and waiting lists, whilst also facing likely staff shortages.

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Founded in 1899, the ICN is a federation of more than 130 national nursing associations.

It called for governments to invest in training more new nurses to address the global shortage.

It also called for better pay to encourage existing staff to stay on - to bolster health systems for future crises, if nothing else.