The suspension of the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine decided by the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa throughout the country - after some adverse events and pending the ruling of the European Medicines Agency Ema - is a
duty and "caution" but "alarmism must be avoided".
From the general manager Aifa Nicola Magrini to the pharmacologist Silvio Garattini, this is the position shared by the majority of experts, who underline how the
thrombotic events associated with the vaccine show a rate similar to that recorded in the general population, even if in Germany a particular rare form of this pathology
.
First of all, Magrini reassured:
"There was a suspension because several European countries, including Germany and France, preferred to suspend in the presence of some very recent and very few cases of adverse events in women and young people
, and this suggested a stop of checks before leaving. In a few days we await the EMA "but" those who have already had the vaccine can and must remain safe. I feel like saying - he reiterated - that the vaccine is safe, even having reviewed all the data ".
The Ema, also reassured the director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health Gianni Rezza, "will meet shortly to clarify any doubts in order to be able to start again as soon as possible and in complete safety with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the vaccination campaign. that those who have received the first dose will receive the second on schedule ".
So far, Rezza recalls, "in Italy almost 7 million doses have been administered" with "very limited serious adverse events.
The temporary suspension for AstraZeneca was decided only as a precaution in agreement with Germany and France"
.
The director of the Mario Negri Silvio Garattini Institute speaks of a "right and cautious act" and along the same lines is the geneticist Giuseppe Novelli, who highlights another aspect: the subjects who have already received a first dose "are in theory comparable by the immunological point of view with subjects recovered from Covid-19, for which the indication is to carry out a single administration of vaccine from 3 to 6 months after recovery ".
However, for the purpose of a possible postponement of the second dose of AstraZeneca after the scheduled 12 weeks - if this becomes necessary - "further laboratory tests are necessary".
The Italian Society for the Study of Haemostasis and Thrombosis (SISET) is also highlighting that there is no greater risk of thrombosis linked to the vaccine.
As of March 10, the European surveillance system had recorded 30 cases of thrombotic events in 5 million subjects vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
This number, he says, "is comparable to the thrombosis rate routinely recorded in the general population and at the moment it is not possible to establish whether there was a causal link between vaccination and thrombotic events or whether the events occurred only by coincidence."
If a connection is therefore not conceivable at the moment, however, a further report has come from Germany that is currently being studied:
the German Federal Institute for Vaccines Paul Ehrlich has highlighted an "impressive accumulation of a very rare special form of cerebral venous thrombosis ( sinus vein thrombosis) in connection with a shortage of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia) and bleeding in the temporal proximity to vaccinations with the Astra-Zeneca vaccine ".
This type of thrombosis mainly affects women and has an incidence of 5 in a million people.
The data are now undergoing further analysis by the EMA.