Corona vaccinations with the active ingredient from the manufacturer AstraZeneca are now also suspended in Germany as a precaution.
Minister Spahn arranges.
Update from March 15, 4.40 p.m.:
In addition to Germany, France and Italy are now also suspending AstraZeneca vaccinations, reports the German press agency.
After the death of three soldiers, whose connection to the vaccination has yet to be checked, the Italian health authority had already stopped a batch.
Italy is now waiting for the EMA's recommendation that the British drug will be withheld entirely until then.
In France, State Secretary Agnès Pannier-Runacher recently expressed "very angry" about the AstraZeneca delivery cuts.
After the recent reports of blood clots, President Emmanuel Macron has now announced the stop of the drug.
AstraZeneca vaccination suspended in Germany: Lauterbach "would not have done that"
Update from March 15, 4.15 p.m.:
After the vaccine stop by the manufacturer AstraZeneca in Germany, SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach is anything but enthusiastic about the Federal Government's approach.
He told
Merkur.de
: “I wouldn't have done that.
A check with ongoing vaccinations would have been better in view of the rarity of the cases that occur.
In view of the fact that the incidence in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated people is the same, I would have let the vaccination run.
Now we have a significant loss of confidence.
Our vaccination strategy collapses if the AstraZeneca vaccine were no longer used. "
Then there would be no vaccinations in the doctor's offices.
Lauterbach guess, however, “we are only taking a short break”.
The vaccination sequence must now be adhered to all the more precisely in order to prevent deaths.
The SPD politician continues: "It is now becoming increasingly clear that it was a mistake on the part of the EU not to provide more capacities for Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Biontech by expanding capacities."
AstraZeneca: Germany suspends corona vaccine as a precaution - Jens Spahn informs in PK
Update from March 15, 2020, 4 p.m.:
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn now informs in a press conference.
Due to the accumulation of critical side effects after administration of the active ingredient by AstraZeneca, the active ingredient is now being examined.
The exam should be completed later this week.
As Jens Spahn further explains at the PK, people who suffer from persistent side effects longer than four days after being vaccinated with the active ingredient should get in touch.
“It's about a very low risk,” says Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, however.
There is currently no acute risk, but a connection with the frequent side effects cannot be ruled out.
The upcoming AstraZeneca deliveries will initially be temporarily stored.
“I don’t want to speculate, that’s useless.
We just have to wait and see, ”explains Spahn.
However, transparency is now important to prevent a further loss of trust.
"If vaccination with AstraZeneca becomes possible again, we will again advertise trust in the vaccination," says Spahn, indicating a possible further course of action.
So far, however, it cannot be foreseen what a failure of the active substance could mean for the vaccination strategy.
“It was more important to me to inform the people now,” he said, and the next steps must be assessed after the active ingredient has been tested.
AstraZeneca vaccination freeze in Germany: "Suspend vaccinations as a precaution" - Spahn statement live
Notification of origin
: Berlin - Corona vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine are suspended in Germany as a precaution.
The federal government is following a current recommendation from the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health on Monday.
After new reports of thrombosis of the cerebral veins in connection with the vaccination in Germany and Europe, the institute considers further investigations to be necessary.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will decide "whether and how the new findings will affect the approval of the vaccine".
Corona in Germany: AstraZeneca has already made negative headlines in the past
As early as November, Astrazeneca caused a stir with the presentation that its corona vaccine could keep up with the more than 90 percent effectiveness of the much more difficult to store and more expensive vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna.
However, this success rate was only found in clinical tests if the first injection was only given with half a dose and the second vaccination with the full dose, the manufacturer admitted.
The developers of the Astrazeneca vaccine discovered this only by chance, because some of the subjects were accidentally given only half a dose at first.
This mishap cast doubt on the overall reliability of the tests.
Astrazeneca now states the effectiveness of its corona vaccine at around 70 percent.
The effectiveness of the vaccine from the manufacturer Biontech is over 90 percent.
Corona in Germany: Astrazeneca vaccine caused restrictions even before approval
After the EU-wide approval of the Astrazeneca vaccine at the end of December, Germany and other member states initially restricted its use for people up to 64 years of age because insufficient data was available for older people.
As a result, the vaccine could not be used for many people in priority level 1.
It was not until the beginning of March that Germany and other EU countries also released the drug for older people on the basis of new research data.
But the damage was done, and many people willing to vaccinate questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Corona in Germany: Astrazeneca's active ingredient under fire - does vaccine cause serious side effects?
The most serious doubts about the vaccine from the manufacturer Astrazeneca, however, are fueling reports of possible side effects, according to reports, severe blood clots occurred after vaccination with the active ingredient.
On Thursday Denmark initially suspended the vaccination with the vaccine.
This was followed by Norway, Iceland and the EU countries Bulgaria, Ireland and the Netherlands.
Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg suspended the use of a certain Astrazeneca batch, Italy and Romania stopped the use of another batch.
Thailand and the Democratic Republic of the Congo postponed vaccination start.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday that the number of blood clots was "no higher in vaccinated people than in the general population".
The World Health Organization (WHO) did not initially identify any need for action.
List of rubric lists: © Kay Nietfeld / dpa
