AstraZeneca drug syringes in Italy on April 13.ALESSANDRO GAROFALO / Reuters
The Danish Directorate General of Health has definitively canceled this Wednesday the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19, paralyzed in the country for a month, considering that there is a probable connection between this and very rare cases of thrombosis detected after inoculation, that there are enough vaccines on the market and the epidemic situation in this country is under control.
The health authorities have indicated that they are "completely in agreement" with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that the AstraZeneca vaccine is "safe and effective", although they have recalled that the final decision is up to each country and referred to "prospects general social ”, explained the head of department of the Danish Medicines Agency, Tanja Erichsen.
"Now we know that there is a possible biological explanation that the AstraZeneca vaccine can cause these rare cases of thrombosis," the director of the Directorate General of Health, Sren Brostrm, commented at a press conference.
Brostrm spoke of a temporary connection between symptoms (low platelet count, blood vessel clots and bleeding) and vaccination and a "consistent" picture of cases both in Denmark and abroad.
These are the risk and benefit calculations with the AstraZeneca vaccine
In collaboration with Norway, the other European country that has suspended vaccination with AstraZeneca, the Danish authorities have estimated, after studying their health records, that the risk of contracting these symptoms for those who have received this vaccine is one in 40,000 and that it cannot be narrowed down to specific age or gender groups.
The director of the Directorate-General for Health, Sren Brostrm, and the head of department of the Danish Medicines Agency, Tanja Erichsen, during a press conference on March 25.
Mads Claus Rasmussen / AP
Brostrm stressed that there is "sufficient" evidence for the Danish authorities to react, although he added that Denmark does not refuse to be able to recover the vaccine in the future if necessary, in case the epidemiological situation worsens significantly and health is under pressure.
The second dose, with another drug
The decision assumes that the 149,000 people who have received the first dose of AstraZeneca in Denmark will later be offered another of the vaccines approved in this country.
Denmark's vaccination schedule will also be delayed by several weeks and the authorities now estimate that the entire population will have completed it in early August, rather than in the second half of July.
Denmark had been the first to suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca on March 11, a decision that was later followed by most European countries, although they resumed the process when the European Medicines Agency (EMA) assured that there was no evidence directly related to the cases of thrombosis detected.
However, some countries have reserved its use for people over 60 years of age, such as Germany, Spain and Sweden, while Norway will announce in a few days what decision it will make on the vaccine, also suspended for a month.
Denmark has registered a death with this clinical picture, which includes a low number of platelets, clots in blood vessels and hemorrhages;
and a couple of cases of deceased with similar symptoms that had not yet been analyzed at the end of March.
The epidemic situation has been stable for a month in Denmark, which last week had the third lowest incidence of new cases in the last 14 days, with 129.15 per 100,000 inhabitants, behind Iceland and Portugal.
The Danish authorities began in March a reopening of economic and social activity, largely linked to the presentation of a certificate that proves that they are vaccinated, have passed the covid-19 or have tested negative.