It is not their number, but their specificity that raises questions.
Asked this Tuesday, March 16 on France Inter, Alain Fischer, “Mr. Vaccin” of the Covid-19 crisis in France, insisted on the “atypical nature” of the adverse events suspected of having occurred in connection with the AstraZeneca vaccination.
Those who justified the suspension of injections with the serum of the British-Swedish group in most of Europe, including France, which followed in Germany on Monday afternoon.
In question, declarations of blood problems which could prove to be serious.
About thirty in total, out of more than 5 million vaccinated.
Among them, a handful of venous thromboses, those blood clots that form in a vein, often in the lower limbs (the famous phlebitis).
An inflammation which also affects around one in 100 Covid patients. "There is no excess of these thromboses with vaccination", points out Julien Carvelli, intensive care physician in Marseille, specialist in immunology issues to which he devotes his research.
A "justified" pharmacovigilance alert
No, what is indeed “atypical” is another form of thrombosis, rarer, called “cerebral venous” and therefore affecting a vein in the brain.
"The localization makes its specific character", notes the doctor.
In Germany, according to the Paul Ehrlich Health Institute, seven cases in patients aged 20 to 50 years, including six women, have been identified.
Three deaths are to be deplored.
Some “1.6 million Germans have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
Seven cases occurred for only one usually observed in an unvaccinated population over a fortnight.
The pharmacovigilance alert is therefore perfectly justified, ”says Dr Carvelli, without however agreeing with the immediate decision to suspend the vaccination campaign even before the final report of the investigation.
"This creates a cacophony and leads to a loss of credibility," he said.
And the doctor reassured: “It is something that we know how to take care of, diagnose and treat.
It can be manifested by headaches, hypertension inside the brain.
"
"It is not known if the vaccine caused these problems"
In the "atypical" family, the professor of infectious diseases at the Parisian hospital Saint-Antoine Karine Lacombe also noticed the Norwegian and Danish cases.
“People suffer from both thrombosis and a decrease in the number of platelets, which lowers the clotting power.
It happens, but it's still very special, ”she observes.
“Still, in my opinion, the suspension should not have taken place.
I would have preferred an investigation, then a decision, rather than this back and forth that is hurting the vaccination campaign.
The decision is political, it is not medical or scientific.
"
“Going from correlation to causation is not the same thing!
We do not know if it is the vaccine that caused these problems, “abounds the immunologist Eric Vivier, who calls for caution as to reactions that are too rapid, while the health situation continues to deteriorate.
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VIDEO. The European Medicines Agency remains "firmly convinced" of the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine
This Tuesday, experts from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) met for the first time.
The EMA remains "firmly convinced" of the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the regulator said.
But his final verdict is expected Thursday.