from Hacker News

Germany suspends use of AstraZeneca vaccine, along with Italy, France, Spain

by vladoh on 3/15/21, 9:21 PM with 23 comments

  • by reddotX on 3/15/21, 9:24 PM

    Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Portugal etc

  • by bsimpson on 3/15/21, 9:34 PM

  • by jfengel on 3/16/21, 2:40 PM

    Are they shipping their supplies to the countries that are still using it?

    I suspect that the UK would be very happy to take Germany's supply.

  • by qalmakka on 3/15/21, 9:34 PM

    This is really dangerous, and it really risks being the literal spanner in the works for the already compromised EU vaccine program.

    I find really likely that, no matter the result of the EMA's investigation, the already pretty skeptic population of certain countries will outright refuse being inoculated with the AZ jab from now on, making the goal of vaccinating everyone in the EU before summer absolutely impossible to reach.

  • by geospeck on 3/15/21, 9:33 PM

    Is this related to the Northern Ireland protocol?

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/15/europe/eu-uk-brexit-grace...

  • by dean177 on 3/15/21, 9:33 PM

    "What we know is 17 million people have received the vaccine and 37 people have developed these blood clots. That corresponds to .0002% of actually anybody that has been vaccinated getting a blood clot,"

  • by offby37years on 3/15/21, 9:36 PM

    Now halted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Thailand, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Congo and Bulgaria.

    Meanwhile Trudeau has the gall to assure the AstraZeneca vaccine is "safe and effective": https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-astrazeneca-safe-1....

  • by jedberg on 3/15/21, 9:40 PM

    Three weeks ago I was debating someone here on HN, defending the FDAs choice to deny approval of the AZ vaccine. I pointed out that while the FDA can be conservative compared to the EU, they have a strong track record of being right.

    Thalidomide is the most well known example, but there are many others:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumiracoxib -- Approved in Europe, not the USA. Withdrawn from sales due to side effects.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimelidine -- Same.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolrestat -- Approved in Europe, failed stage 3 clinical in the USA

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimonabant -- Approved in Europe, failed in the USA, withdrawn worldwide because the side effects were so bad.