Denmark is the first country in Europe who ban AstraZeneca vaccine
Denmark became the first European country to declare on Wednesday that it is permanently ban AstraZeneca vaccine for the treatment of Corona Virus. Despite guidelines from the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency to continue using the vaccine, Health Authority director Soren Brostrom said at a press conference that without the AstraZeneca vaccine, the vaccination programme would continue in Denmark.
After reports of sporadic but severe cases of blood clots among those who had given the vaccine, Denmark was the first country in Europe to ban AstraZeneca vaccine in its vaccination roll out. After the European Medicines Agency (EMA) highlighted the vaccine’s advantages and called it “safe and reliable,” more than a dozen countries followed suit, although all but a few have since resumed use.
Denmark, on the other hand, had managed to hold off on using the vaccine when conducting its own research. After more than 140,000 people in Denmark received the Anglo-Swedish drug maker’s vaccine, two cases of blood clots, one of which was fatal, were related to vaccinations. Just 8% of the country’s 5.8 million people have been completely vaccinated against Covid-19, while 17% have received the first dose.
Denmark has continued to use the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines after banning the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March.
The suspension of AstraZeneca puts the country’s aggressive vaccine roll out plans on hold, but the health authority said in a statement that the availability of other vaccines, coupled with the fact that the pandemic is still under control, meant the infectious disease programme will proceed without it.
