EU VACCINE CHAOS
17 COUNTRIES IN JABS MELTDOWN DESPITE HEALTH REGULATORS BACKING OXFORD/ASTRAZENECA DOSES
EUROPE’S stuttering vaccine rollout risked grinding to a halt yesterday after Germany, Italy, France, Portugal and Spain suspended use of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine over safety fears.
They join 12 other European countries – including Ireland – that have imposed a partial or totalal ban on the British jab as a ‘precaution’ amid claims a handful of patients had suffered blood clots.
But fewer than 40 cases of serious side effects have been reported in the 17million people treated so far, and experts in the e
UK warned pausing the e rollout risked ‘tens of f thousands’ more deaths s in a continent on the brink k of a third wave.
Prof Andrew Pollard, of f the Oxford vaccine group,p told the BBC: ‘Italy and France and Germany and Poland – all have the start of a new surge. There is no increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the UK, where
most of the doses in Europe been given so far’far.’ Boris Johnson waded into the row as another 64 deaths and 5,089 new cases were reported in the UK.
‘We have one of the toughest and most experienced regulators in the
world,’ the prime minister said. ‘They see no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination programme.
‘So we continue to be very confident about the programme and it’s great to see it being rolled out at such speed across the across the UK.’ France’s president Emmanuel Macron said he was suspending Oxford jabs ‘in the hope that we can resume quickly if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives the green light’.
Former EMA member Prof Steven Evans doubted there was a problem but said: ‘Once there is a scare in one place and people become anxious then countries start falling like dominoes.’
The World Health Organization and the European regulator have dismissed the safety scare.
And Belgian health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said his government would continue to use the AstraZeneca jab because based on current evidence there was ‘no reason to stop now’.
He added: ‘It is a very good vaccine, it protects against a deadly disease. To stop using it would be irresponsible.’
Germany and France ruled out using the AstraZeneca jab on the elderly, citing a lack of evidence for its effectiveness, before a U-turn last month.
AstraZeneca said trials of the drug showed blood clots were more likely in those who have not been vaccinated, and Cambridge University professor of statistics Sir David Spiegelhalter said a ban could do ‘more harm than good’.
Meanwhile, Italy closed shops, schools and restaurants in 11 regions yesterday ahead of a national lockdown over the Easter weekend after cases rose ten per cent in a week.
France started airlifting intensivecare patients from stretched Paris hos
■ The government’s £3billion plan to improve bus services is a great idea (Metro, Mon). Londoners get really cheap buses and a great service, and have done for years, but take a look at any other part of the country. What would be a great idea is if the rest of the country had buses subsidised like London. I live in Newcastle and we pay a fortune to travel on unreliable, extremely old and toxic buses. It’s about time the rest of the country got looked at. Justin, Newcastle
■ A levelling up of bus subsidies is long overdue when compared with rail funding. Ted, Reading
■ We have one bus an hour between 8am and 6pm in our village. We then
have a Park And Ride but that’s inconvenient and not much cheaper than driving into town. I can drive to town in 20 minutes but if I use Park And Ride I can add 20 minutes to my journey. Many years ago, Liverpool had a free city-circular linking train stations to business and shopping areas. It was very popular but was cut as the local authority said it couldn’t afford it. Free bus use would cut traffic very quickly.
Alan Jones, Derby
What’s the use of having more buses when the new low-traffic networks
(LTN) in London mean the main roads on the bus routes are now so congested it takes almost twice as long to get anywhere?
There’s not always room for a bus lane, especially with all the cycle lanes already narrowing the very narrow London roads.
These LTNs are now clogging up the main roads with more cars which have to take longer on their journeys and thereby increase pollution – and these roads are also used by buses and pedestrians, and also have cycle lanes!