Developing countries such as African countries and Brazil announced that they will continue to use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, despite the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine has been discontinued in several European countries in the past week. There are not many options for each country when it comes to vaccination for economic reasons.
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As it stands now, it is either AstraZeneca or nothing for some poorer countries. The vaccine from the English-language pharmaceutical manufacturer is cheaper and easier to store than many others. It will account for almost all of the doses sent during the first half of the year by COVAX, a consortium designed to ensure that low- and middle-income countries receive vaccines.
With little choice, most developing countries that had AstraZeneca on hand pushed forward even though major European countries suspended their use in the past week after reports that unusual blood clots were found in some recipients of the shot – despite insistence from international health authorities that there was no evidence that the vaccine was responsible.
But while governments in Africa and elsewhere expressed their determination to continue using the shot, not everyone is convinced.
“Why should I let it be used on me? Are we not people like those in Europe?” Peter Odongo, who lives in a city in northern Uganda, told the Daily Monitor this week.
The East African country has so far received 864,000 AstraZeneca doses via COVAX but had administered less than 3,000 by Tuesday. Authorities blamed logistical challenges for transporting the vaccines deep into the country, but newspaper reports cited opposition to the vaccine.
Even before the recent debate over AstraZeneca, vaccine skepticism had been a worldwide concern, as many people were hesitant about record-breaking shots. African countries have faced particular obstacles on a continent that is wary of being a test site for the West. Some leaders have pushed back against skepticism, while others, such as those in Burundi and Tanzania, have fed it by seeming to deny the seriousness of COVID-19.
“Unfortunate events” in Europe will clearly not help our public confidence, to ensure public confidence and confidence in the use of the specific vaccine and other vaccines safely, “said John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. , told reporters on Thursday, when he encouraged African countries to continue their vaccinations.
It came hours before the European Union Medicines Agency gave the same message to its 27 members. The European Medicines Agency (ICAO) said its experts concluded that the vaccine was not linked to an overall increase in the risk of blood clots, although it could not definitively rule out a link to rare blood clots and the vaccine. In response, countries such as Italy, France and Germany announced that they would resume use of the shot.
Even before these twists and turns, several developing countries had said they would stick to the shot.
“We will continue the vaccination,” said Lia Tadesse, Ethiopia’s health minister, who received 2.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week.
Authorities in India – home to the vaccine maker that is likely to make a large part of the doses intended for developing countries – said on Wednesday that they would continue the AstraZeneca inoculations with “full force” when infections jumped in several parts of the country. it would delay the use of the vaccine, Thailand said on Tuesday that it would continue with AstraZeneca, and the prime minister even got his shot in public.
Brazil’s state-run Fiocruz Institute delivered the first AstraZeneca bottles in Brazil on Wednesday as the health ministry tried to allay concerns about the blood clot reports and demanded calm.
Very few developing countries kept the trend. Congo, for example, stopped using AstraZeneca and put the vaccination campaign on hold even before it started because it has no doses of anything else. Indonesia said it would wait for a full report from the WHO.
European and other rich countries have several vaccines to choose from, but AstraZeneca is currently at the forefront of the vaccine strategy for the rest of the world. Some developing countries have received doses of Chinese-made or Russian-made vaccines – often as donations – but at least in Africa, these allocations have usually been relatively small. The Chinese and Russian vaccines have not yet been approved by the WHO and therefore cannot be distributed by COVAX.
Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion, hopes to be able to vaccinate 60% of its inhabitants by the end of 2022. That goal will almost certainly not be achieved without extensive use of AstraZeneca. And experts have warned that the virus remains a threat everywhere until vaccination levels are high worldwide.
The declining confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine only exacerbates the difficulties that Africa will face in launching its inoculation campaigns. The continent is home to some of the world’s weakest health systems. Nations there have struggled just to test enough people for coronavirus, and the actual toll is unknown due to challenges in tracking cases and deaths. According to the African Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), more than 4 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed across the continent, including more than 108,000 deaths.
In an analysis released on Thursday, the World Bank found that 85% of low- and middle-income countries had a plan to vaccinate, but less than a third had public engagement strategies to combat hesitation and misinformation about vaccines.
This means that confusion such as that caused by the break in AstraZeneca across Europe can be difficult to erase.
“It complicates the situation,” said Dr Misaki Wayengera, head of a technical working group advising on Uganda’s pandemic response, referring to the shutdown. “It’s the best shot we have here, and we should be able to take it.”
The blow to public confidence was felt in countries such as Somalia, which began vaccinating on Tuesday, but where some said they were not keen on getting the AstraZeneca shot while many in Europe did not use it.
“This immunization is not meaningful when EU countries have discontinued its use,” said Abdulkadir Osman. “We simply cannot trust it.”
In Rwanda, which received 240,000 doses of AstraZeneca and more than 102,000 of the Pfizer vaccine, Justin Gatsinzi said he was initially reluctant to get the shot but was fined for refusing certain public services if he refused.
“It’s very tricky actually,” said Gatsinzi, a teacher, adding that he was not told what vaccine he was given.
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