POLL SHOWS FALL IN EUROPEANS’ TRUST IN ASTRAZENECA VACCINE

Mon 22 March 2021:

Trust in AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in many European countries has plunged following controversy around the jab in recent weeks, according to a new survey unveiled by British pollsters YouGov.

A majority of people in the biggest European Union member states, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, now see the inoculation as unsafe, the recent poll found.

However, views of the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant’s jab remain overwhelming positive in Britain, where two-thirds of respondents said it is safe, compared to just nine percent believing it is not.

The findings come at a tumultuous time for the AstraZeneca vaccine and the EU’s troubled inoculation campaign, as a third virus wave on the continent prompts renewed social restrictions.

Europe’s vaccine rollout has already been slower than expected. Meanwhile, the continent is confronting a third wave of the pandemic, fueled by variants of the virus.

European heavyweights Germany, France and Italy — all of which have seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases — were among more than a dozen countries to pause their rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot while Europe’s medicines regulator, the European Medical Authority (EMA), investigated the concerns.

The EMA “has come to a clear scientific conclusion. This is a safe and effective vaccine,” executive director Emer Cooke said Thursday. She said the group did not find that the vaccine causes clotting, though it could not definitively rule out a link to a rare blood clotting disorder.

Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Cyprus and the Netherlands all announced plans to resume Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccinations, with other countries expected to follow. 

While the French health authority green-lit the resumption of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout on Friday, it recommended its use only for people aged 55 and older.

Even following the EMA’s conclusion that Oxford-AstraZeneca is safe and effective, European governments may have a tough job rebuilding confidence in their own populations.