Oxford vax suspended by Denmark
Correx unions blame court for ‘killer’ error
Denmark announced Thursday it has temporarily paused inoculations with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after several patients reported suffering from blood clots shortly after receiving the shot.
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said authorities were looking into “signs of a possible serious side effect in the form of fatal blood clots,” emphasizing that it was a “precautionary measure.” He added that in the coming two weeks, experts will work to determine whether or not the clots can be linked to the coronavirus treatment.
“We act early, it needs to be thoroughly investigated,” he said in a tweet.
Norway and Iceland also announced on Thursday they planned to temporarily suspend all AstraZeneca vaccinations to probe the potential side effect, the Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, Italy’s national medicines authority joined Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Lithuania in banning inoculations from one particular batch of AstraZeneca vaccines, made up of 1 million doses distributed across 17 countries.
Since March 9, the European Medicines Agency revealed of the millions of people that have received the shot, 22 people have experienced blood clots.
The Danish Health Authority also confirmed in a statement that it is investigating one death in Denmark.
“We are in the middle of the largest and most important vaccination rollout in Danish history. And right now we need all the vaccines we can get. Therefore, putting one of the vaccines on pause is not an easy decision,” Søren Brostrøm, director of the National Board of Health, said in the statement.
“But precisely because we vaccinate so many, we also need to respond with timely care when there is knowledge of possible serious side effects. We need to clarify this before we can continue to use the vaccine from AstraZeneca.”
Brostrøm added that the nation has not opted out of the AstraZeneca vaccine, developed along with Oxford University, but is rather “just putting it on hold.”
“There is good evidence that the vaccine is both safe and effective,” he continued. “But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to react to reports of possible serious side effects, both from Denmark and other European countries. It shows that the monitoring system works.”
The blame game over the accidental release of a Rikers Island murder suspect is heating up following the suspension of four jail staffers without pay, including an assistant deputy warden.
The city’s correction union bosses are pointing fingers at Brooklyn Criminal Court workers after Christopher Buggs, 26, was released early Tuesday due to a clerical error. He was listed as eligible for release on “time served” on a still-pending charge of second-degree murder for a 2018 shooting at a Brooklyn deli.
The manhunt for Buggs, considered armed and dangerous, continued Thursday.
Assistant Deputy Warden Kevin Roulston, the tour commander in charge of operations at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island the night of the stunning screwup, was suspended for seven days.
When a Daily News reporter asked Roulston at his home in Laurelton, Queens, on Thursday whether he believed the agency was trying to blame him for the erroneous release, he said, “Yeah
they are trying to — but you know I can’t talk to you.”
“You know I can’t say anything to you, I’m an employee,” he added.
Capt. Abraham Palermo was suspended for two weeks. Correction Officers Tanya McCoy and Tamia St. Hilaire were both suspended for 15 days.
Joe Russo, the president of the union representing assistant deputy and deputy wardens, says a court staff clerical error is to
blame.
Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Benny Boscio Jr. called for the immediate termination of Warden Sherma Dunbar, who runs Otis Bantum Correctional Center.
“There’s quick rush to judgment on my members, but where is the accountability for her?” Boscio told the Daily News on Thursday. “We’re constantly scapegoated in these equations. ... Where’s the due process?”
Dunbar was moved from her post as warden of Manhattan Detention Complex to warden of Rikers Island’s George R. Verino Center in January 2020 before being transferred to Otis Bantum Correctional Center after a correction officer was stabbed in the hand in October during a jail gang fight.
In January, an inmate at Otis Bantum Correctional Center who was found with a sheet around his neck also died under her watch, according to an internal Correction Department incident report obtained by The News.
“She’s the commanding officer in all of these equations ... she should be fired,” Boscio said.
Buggs served 30 days on the contempt charge after twice telling a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge on his murder case to “Suck my d—-.” The outburst came when the judge declined to allow him out on bail on the murder charge.
Once the 30-day sentence was up, jail staff apparently misread his records and sprung Buggs from Rikers Island, where he was supposed to be held without bail until his murder trial began.