Quote Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays View Post
There are two things going on.

1. The EU's negotiated contracts with Pfizer and Astra Zeneca and the political posturing by the EU around their failure to source the vaccine as quickly as the UK and
2. The decision by individual countries in the EU and Norway/Iceland to pause the use of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine because of blood-clotting and other side effects.

The latter has nothing to do with the EU or its bureaucracy as you suggest but then again you should know that as you read the news!
No it is not just EU countries who have banned the Oxford Vaccine but I suspect it is still a political decision in some countries arising in apart from the row with Astra Zeneca. France in particular has been bad mouthing the vaccine for weeks. Germany too has been pretty lukewarm.Such actions tend to plant doubt in peoples minds.

Don't take my word for it

The director general of Italys medicines authority AIFA someone far more qualified than any of us on here said on Tuesday
in an interview with daily la Repubblica

We got to the point of a suspension because several European countries, including Germany and France, preferred to interrupt vaccinations... to put them on hold in order to carry out checks. The choice is a political one, Nicola Magrini told


More fool them. Being careful about side effects is one thing. Banning something which is causing problems in about 7 people per million when the alternative ( which incidentally also has a similiar side effect) is killing 1000/2000 per million in some of the countries doesn't seem to be the most sensible decision in the world.

Of course the effect needS to be investigated but not stopped. A rare side effect of Paracetamol causes a low platelet count which i9s one of the side effects being reported from the vaccine but there is a warniNG about that in the leaflet you get in a box. i suspect the result of this will be a similar warning being given with the vaccine.