The demonized vaccine by AstraZeneca against covid has the days numbered in Spain. After many comings and goings of the government, the Ministry of Health announced on July 19 that I stopped distributing it among the autonomous communities, understanding that they had enough doses to complete the vaccination schedule of the people who had to receive the second injection, and that the rest of the vials (20 million that remain to be received from the commitment of 31 million acquired with the pharmaceutical company) they would donate through the Covax mechanism.
Monday, July 26, 2021. In compliance with the commitment announced by the President of the Government at the Ibero-American Summit in Andorra, Spain has begun donating 7.5 million vaccines to Latin American and Caribbean countries, which will be distributed to through the COVAX mechanism.
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Paradoxes of life, this goodbye occurs just when a large number of recent studies support the safety and efficacy of the Oxford drug. One of the most relevant is the one recently published in the magazine The Lancet, which confirms that a person immunized with this formula has the same chance of thrombi that if you have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Their security profiles are very similar.
But, in addition, its effectiveness against the variant detected for the first time in India (renamed Delta by the WHO) is proving much better than expected. A study conducted by the Canada Immunization Research Network (CIRN) with data from the real world has shown that single dose is 82% effective against hospitalization or death caused by Beta / Gamma variants (South African / Brazilian), 87% versus Delta (Indian) and 90% versus Alpha (British). Percentages that would increase after the second dose. As reflected by data from the public health system (PHE), in the case of AstraZeneca it would reach 92% effective against Delta variant (india).
On the other hand, studies have been published that support the combination efficacy of vaccines AstraZeneca Y Pfizer, ensuring that the protection it provides is even greater than that offered by two injections of the same drug. The last, published in Nature, certifies that the antibody level what generates is up to three times greater.
In fact, it is now that countries that had not done so until now fearlessly authorize the administration of the vaccine. It is the case of New Zealand, that approved this Thursday its use for people over 18 years of age, becoming the third drug against covid authorized by the New Zealand regular body, MEDSAFE, after Janssen and Pfizer.
The safety profile
Surely security is what has worried the most since the first cases of thrombi were reported in March after the administration of the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Some episodes that EMA cataloged from “very rare”. But that, even so, carried the vaccination stoppage with the Oxford drug on several occasions, until I have more information. Finally, Health decided to limit its administration to over 60 years. And recently, dispense with of this drug in the vaccination campaign.
But, right now, the wind is blowing in favor of the British pharmaceutical company. Reality has shown that thrombotic events they have been absolutely exceptional. An anecdote among the millions of AstraZeneca vaccines inoculated worldwide. Logically, scientific research certifies it.
The work published on July 27 in The Lancet analyzes the cases of 945,941 participants inoculated with mRNA vaccines, 426,272 who have been administered AstraZeneca, 222,710 people with Covid-19 and another 4,570,149 participants.
Researchers assessed incidence rates from thromboembolic and thrombocytopenic blood clotting disorders, including thrombosis with very rare frequency thrombocytopenia, after vaccination with an mRNA vaccine or Vaxzevria (new brand name for AstraZeneca). And they were also compared to expected rates in a general population and in people with the disease.
The result: security profiles of Astrazeneca (Vaxzevria) and messenger RNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) were similar and generally favorable. They were observed bleeding disorders (TTS) very rare with all drugs, and in lower proportion that between diagnosed with covid.
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