AstraZeneca hails US trials as EU rows with UK over supplies

WASHINGTON – Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said yesterday that trials showed its Covid-19 vaccine is 100% effective in preventing severe disease, as a row simmered between Britain and the EU over much-needed supplies of the jab. 

The AstraZeneca shot is cheaper and easier to store than many of its rivals, but several countries in Europe and other parts of the world last week suspended its use because of isolated cases of blood clots.

It is also at the centre of a row between Britain and the EU, after Brussels threatened to ban exports to the UK unless the company delivers more of the 90 million doses it agreed to supply in the first quarter of 2021. 

Irish prime minister Micheal Martin said such a move would be “a very retrograde step,” while Britain’s leader urged the European Union not to carry out its threat. 

“We’re all facing the same pandemic, we all have the same problems,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The spat is mostly focused on a Netherlands factory that is still awaiting official EU approval, but which both sides claim as a future source of the AstraZeneca jab.

Exiting the pandemic

Vaccination drives are seen as crucial to overcoming the pandemic that has killed more than 2.7 million people since first emerging in China in late 2019. 

They are also the most likely route out of lockdowns and restrictions that continue to paralyze economies around the world. 

More than 430 million jabs have now been rolled out globally, mostly in wealthier nations.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday slammed the “grotesque” vaccine gap, calling it a “moral outrage.” 

Even as demand for vaccines remains high, public confidence in the AstraZeneca jab in particular has taken a knock in Europe. 

A survey by British pollsters YouGov showed yesterday that a majority of people in the biggest EU states – including Germany, France, Spain and Italy – view the vaccine as unsafe.

Yesterday also saw Iceland saying it would not yet be resuming AstraZeneca vaccinations.

The EU’s medicines regulator and the WHO insist there is no evidence of linking the drug to blood clots. 

And AstraZeneca said yesterday that US tests on more than 30,000 people showed no increased risk of thrombosis.

It said the jab was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in the overall population, 100% effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation and 80% effective at preventing the disease in the elderly. – AFP, March 23, 2021