Expert warns ‘people will die’ from Europe’s illogical vaccine decisions

Prof Brown, a consultant in respiratory medicine and member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said he was worried the decision could drive up the number of people who are hesitant about booking their vaccine.

“There is the concern that what’s happening in Europe might make people in the UK less confident in the AstraZeneca vaccine, unnecessarily so, because it’s perfectly safe,” he told Good Morning Britain.

The vaccine has been given to around 11 million people in the UK “and there’s been no serious side-effects” reported in this country, he added.

“It is confusing to understand why so many countries have decided to stop using the vaccine.

“Many of those countries are going through a third wave, and by stopping using the vaccine they’re actually literally causing more problems.

“By not using the vaccine, this is going to directly lead to an increased incidence of Covid infection and people will die as a consequence of these decisions.”

Sweden and Latvia have followed countries including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, in temporarily suspending AstraZeneca jabs in light of a small number of reports of bleeding, blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

Some of the focus has been on Germany, where officials have received seven reports in total of bleeding and a form of severe cerebral venous thrombosis associated with low platelets.

Of the seven people, three have died, and all were aged between 20 and 50, officials said.

Six of the people had a particular form of cerebral venous thrombosis, called sinus vein thrombosis, and all of these were “younger to middle-aged women”.

In Italy, health minister Roberto Speranza said he and other European countries are hopeful the European Medicines Agency, which is due to deliver its verdict on Thursday, will provide the “the clarifications and reassurances necessary” to re-start use of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, French prime minister Jean Castex has said he is willing to take the AstraZeneca jab and wants to demonstrate to his fellow citizens “that vaccination is the exit door from this crisis”.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Prof Brown said the blood clots reported in Europe were “very, very rare events which may be occurring in three or four people per million people vaccinated.

“And yet, on the other side, that is against the fact that if you vaccinate a million people with the AstraZeneca vaccine, you’re going to save 1,000 lives.

“They have taken the precautionary principle about doing no harm and they have used it in the wrong way – by looking at not using the vaccine, whereas in fact you should continue using the vaccine unless there’s incredibly good reasons not to.”

Prof Brown said he did not believe clots reported in Germany “will turn out to be linked to the vaccine anyway – this is an incredibly rare event”.

He added: “We don’t know how often it occurs, even if people have not been vaccinated.

“It’s a complication of actually having acute Covid infection itself, and therefore it’s very, very rare and unlikely to be linked to the vaccine.

“Using that as a reason to stop using the vaccine when we know the vaccine prevents 85 to 90% admission to hospital is not sensible.”

He later told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the concerns raised in Germany were “overblown”.

He added: “I don’t see it being likely to be linked to the vaccine either mechanistically, or the numbers involved are so low it seems very unlikely that there’s much increased risk, if any increased risk, with the vaccine at all.”

He continued: “I don’t understand why this is happening.

“To me it doesn’t seem at all logical, because we do know the vaccine works…It is an incredibly effective vaccine, and by rolling out the vaccine you prevent deaths.”

He said that by stopping the rolling out of the vaccine, European countries “will cause more illness and more deaths” from Covid than they would ever prevent due to the “unlikely” situation that there is an increased risk of blood clots from a vaccine.

“It is not logical,” he added.