VACCINATION: France suspended the vaccination campaign with the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, hopes to be able to resume the vaccination campaign with the AstraZeneca product on Thursday, after a new opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), by wanting to reassure those who have already received an injection, who “are not in danger,” he said on Tuesday visiting a school in Villiers-le-Bel (Val d’Oise).
“I am one of those French people who received an AstraZeneca injection. There is no particular step to take, people are not in danger because they would have been vaccinated by AstraZeneca ”, indicated the Minister.
An “extraordinary meeting” Thursday
The time between two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine ranges from nine to twelve weeks in France. Like several of its European neighbors, such as Germany and Italy, France on Monday suspended the use of the vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory, due to a few cases of blood clots in vaccinated people, without proven link with injection.
The EMA announced that it would examine this Tuesday “in detail the information” on these fears, before an “extraordinary meeting” Thursday, while reaffirming that the benefits of this vaccine outweighed the risks. “The situation is that there have been new alerts coming from different European countries […] with anomalies of the thrombosis, a little bit atypical, which suggest that possibly an event could occur in which the vaccine plays a role ”, declared on his side on France Inter the president of the Council of the orientation of the vaccine strategy, Prof. Alain Fischer.
“We do not confuse speed and haste”
“What the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) tells us is that, as with any medication, if you have symptoms, which may or may not be linked to taking this medication, then you call your doctor. Otherwise, there is no particular step to take, ”insisted the minister.
“We hope for Thursday afternoon for a form of verdict from the European scientific community allowing us, I hope once again ardently, to be able to resume the campaign,” he added. “We do not confuse speed and haste […] we take the time when there are questions that arise to say ‘we suspend, we take a step to the side and we watch how it goes” “, added Olivier Véran.
