Denmark becomes first European country to stop rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine completely

Denmark has stopped the rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine completely amid concerns over rare side effects caused due to the virus. The Danish Health authorities on April 14 announced that they will no longer resume use of AstraZeneca vaccine. The Danish authorities are now going ahead with the vaccination program with Pfizer/Biotech and Moderna vaccines. With this, Denmark has become the first country in the European Union to drop AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine amid concerns over serious side effects. The health authorities in a statement said that they will continue the vaccination drive without the use of AstraZeneca. They further said that they might re-introduce the vaccine if the situation changes. The Danish health authorities said that the AstraZeneca vaccine is still an approved vaccine but it has been pulled out of vaccine rollout in the country. The decision comes after the European Union Medicine Regulator said that an unusual blood clot should be listed as a 'very rare' side effect of AstraZeneca vaccine. On 11 March 2021, the Danish Health Authority paused the use of the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca due to worrying feedback from the ongoing safety monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccines. Since then, the Danish vaccination effort has continued with the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, it said. The Danish Health Authority has decided to continue the rollout at this time without AstraZeneca, but this does not exclude that we may re-introduce the vaccine at a later date if the situation changes, it added. Despite the recommendations of World Health Organization and Eurpean Union, the Danish authorities has stopped giving AstraZenecavaccine to the people. In the statement, it was mentioned that the people who had received the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine will receive an invitation for taking the vaccination with another vaccine. Danish Health agency Director General Soren Brostrom said that based on the investigation into the Astrazeneca vaccine, the results showed serious effects after administering the vaccine. Based on the scientific findings, our overall assessment is there is a real risk of severe side effects associated with using the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca. We have, therefore, decided to remove the vaccine from our vaccination programme, said Brostrom. Earlier last month, several countries in the European Union temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine over reports of blood clots in recipients. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched an investigation into the reports of blood clots in people who had been given AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. On March 18, EMA concluded that the benefits of AstraZeneca vaccine fighting the virus continue to outweigh the risk of side effects. (Image Credits: AP/PTI)

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Denmark becomes first European country to stop rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine completely

Denmark has become the first country in the European Union to drop AstraZeneca Plc’s vaccine amid concerns over serious side effects.

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