of experts year it'll be a purely scientific few on the topic the european medicines agency tries to stay out of politics and purely chuch by the scientific facts. will this further damage the trust in that particular vaccine. yes and no doubt i mean i've just covered a long story here in brussels and where the vaccine vaccine has been sees extremely high if you talk to these people and say look the european medicines agency has not given emergency approval they looked really long into the matter if they before they give the green light for a vaccine they were like that doesn't impress me at all but on the other hand of course within the general population there are many people who now say oh there seems to be a problem with this vaccine and maybe i should be more careful so thought certainly it doesn't help a vaccine hesitancy in the in the general population nevertheless many have said it

remains a good vaccine and the risks are much smaller than than than the benefits that come with this particular vaccine even if it would turn out that there is a link to be made between those clot blood clots in the brains of people who have been vaccinated. that would still be a positive thing the numbers in europe are going sky high when it comes to new infections. you keep monitoring that european mets as agency a press conference for us we'll come back to you later in the show once you know more what the decision is but 1st the suspension of this vaccine's use threatens to further hinder an already slow roll out by many e.u. countries the european medicines agency is due to address that issue today as we've heard. another setback in an already troubled vaccination campaign germany france italy and spain became the latest european countries to stop

administering the astra zeneca vaccine over fears it causes blood clots for towing in stuff to keep up confidence in this vaccine we now have to give our experts in germany and the european union time to review these recent cases they must also clarify the question of whether the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh possible risks sized reason and i know because one thing is clear not vaccinating also has serious health implications and that review process is what we're waiting on now. french president. said his government would await a statement by the european medicines agency due on tuesday before deciding if the vaccine is put back into use. this is you want the a.t.p.'s on the decision that was taken in accordance with our european policy is to suspend the astra zeneca vaccination as a precautionary measure in the hope that it would be resumed quickly if the

european medicines agency allows it. look at me. the e m a only last week declared that there are no indications that people who have received the astra zeneca vaccine are more likely to develop blood clots british prime minister boris johnson who is quick to dismiss concerns over a vaccine that has already been administered to over 11000000 people in the u.k. . we have one of the toughest and most experienced regulators in the world they see no reason to i discontinued the back nation program and they are plenty of. vaccines that we're currently using i would regret seems that we're currently using the u.k. vaccination drive is racing ahead of the e.u. efforts to inoculate its population against covert 19 with an increasing number of european countries putting their astra zeneca vaccinations on hold that lead is likely to grow. some other developments in the global pandemic

brazil's president also narrow again changed his health minister the force doing this pandemic infections in brazil are surging a mass vaccine drive has begun on the internees an island of bali it's hoped tourists will be drawn back there once enough residents are vaccinated and the philippine capital manila is banning those aged under 18 from leaving their homes for 2 weeks starting wednesday cases there at a 7 month. currently the czech republic is among the worst affected countries in europe like elsewhere on the block vaccine rollout has been slow the number of people who've died with covert 19 in the czech republic is one of the highest per capita in the world. as other phenomena visited the town of tough where people have been affected by the virus in many different ways. the streets of tons of are

silent there are no children at the elementary school local shops are closed with new coronavirus variants reaching across the czech republic this is one of the country to worst affected regions. deputy mayor use the poor tries to keep track of the numbers he says everyone here knows someone who died of cope it 19. something everyone knows i realised many of those who died were people my age or even younger. tracy with me i realised i would never see them again to go fishing watch soccer or have a beer. that really gets to you snuck into a few examination your business out of the car. in the local health center the 1st responders tell us they feel totally overwhelmed and frustrated there is no hospital in town and that means patients with severe cases of cope with 19 have to

be transferred to a clinic 50 kilometers away. and we have to come out of this report because in brussels the executive director of the european medicines agency is talking about how to deal with the astra zeneca vaccine just let's just listen at what people who have received the after the knicker cope at 19 but seen we said very clearly that the benefit risk remains positive we have continued to evaluate we continue to receive additional. possible side of we have put in experts from across the network experts with. specific expertise in coagulation trumbo and balik disorders. so it's an ongoing process so i'm not here to give you the outcome of any scientific review

i'm here to explain the steps in the process what we're were doing and when you can expect us to come to a conclusion. so we're doing this review in the light of concerns that we see from citizens in the u. . the current situation which means that our priority which is to ensure the safety of the vaccine. can be. can be communicated i have to 1st explain that a situation like this is not unexpected when you vaccinate millions of people it's inevitable that you have rare or serious incidences of in the cyst that occur after vaccination and all wrote the a.m.a. is to evaluate these to make sure that any suspected birth reactions are rapidly investigated so we can figure out is this a real side effect to the bike scene or is it

a coincidence now if you do this we have mobilized our pharmacovigilance and risk assessment committee which is a safety committee made up of mainly from experts from the national competence authorities from across the e.u. 'd but we also have haitian referee sensitives on health care professional representatives on this committee and in this case we've also put an expert from some of our international partners to help us with the about you ation we put in experts. who have expertise in trumbo and balak events. events being cut some with very unusual features such as low number of play to that have occurred in a very small number of people who have received the vaccine and these reports have been received through you vigilance the european database for suspected struggle

reaction reports but of course we know that many people many thousands of people develop blood clots annually in the e.u. for many different reasons so what we call on our expert committee to do is to establish whether there might be a causal relationship between the fact the nations and the events in other words whether the vaccines might have caused the adverse events that occurred or whether the events are likely to be due to other causes so this requires a very rigorous analysis of all the data related to trump advance on the experts look in great detail at all the available data but also at the clinical circumstances surrounding the specific cases to determine whether the vaccine might have contributed artists like each have been due to other other courses now i said last week our expert committee met several times on this issue but in the meantime

the interest in these events has actually stimulated additional reporting ringback so we're evaluating each of the instances on a case by case event so our experts are actually meeting again today so having having met most of last week they have we have put together and i have meeting again today to help us evaluate these cases with all the surrounding information about the member states will have the experts will then carry on their assessment and they again will meet on target. state to come to a conclusion on the full information that has been gathered and to advise us as to whether there are any further actions that need to be taken and we will inform the public of the outcome immediately after this meeting i want to stress that our experts are working tirelessly to carry out this this assessment as quickly as

possible but it needs a scientific evaluation we need to have the facts 1st we cannot come to a conclusion until we've done our taro scientific analysis and we owe it to the european citizens to to deliver this clear and science based response. so i want to also stress that our present there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions they have not come up in the clinical trials and they're not listed as known arse or expected side offense with this vaccine in clinical trials both the vaccinated people and the people who receive the 1st cboe have shown small some very small numbers of blood talked about months. we don't know the number of trumbo and balika bends overall in the vaccinated people seems not to be higher than the seen in the camera population. i

don't need to remind you all here today that the covert 19 pandemic is a global crisis with vast dating health social and economic impact and it continues to be a major burden on the e.u. how systems are not seen as for covert 19 help to protect individuals from becoming ill especially health care professionals and vulnerable populations such as older people and those with chronic diseases and this is a very important consideration in our assessment of the benefit risks. so while the investigation is ongoing we are currently we are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the ouster of the senate have vaccine in preventing poke at 19 with its associated risk of hospitalization and death outweigh the risk of the side effects in the mean time anyone who has received the vaccine and has any concerns should contact their appropriate health care professional it's important that people who

suspect that they have a side effect after vaccination report this to the national medicines regulator or to a health care professional who can help them to do so. howzat of people are dying across the e.u. every day we have all through eyes for highly effective covert back scenes that can protect against severe cope with to see. these are very rare trumbo of events are blood clots we need to evaluate these very 1 very carefully the out hope to meet up the other hope meeting today we will have a further update but as i've said it's thursday when we expect you ation to conclude in may is taking this situation very very seriously and we will continue to make sure the european population is informed about the outcome and

ongoing. analysis of this excess money thank you very much thank you very much humor i will now open the floor for questions. james chris the floor is yours truly josh. thank you stefan you can hear me we have been reports in the us similar cases of blood clots linked to the pfizer in return of vaccines and i'd like to ask a guy miss cook please if she has any similar records in the new year and if it's something to be here maybe he's looking into thank you thank you even please for speak. yes thank you very much for the question and it's indeed very relevant. and in fact we are about are you waiting we are looking at. president associated with all box

themes at the moment the current focus because of the reported incidents in europe is on the outskirts that nikka but we have looked at the bar crime freights for all all the box scenes currently in circulation. it looks like there are similar numbers coming in across the world but up to something that went up to be about you 8 it by our committee things are much much rather grim malise. and you know times are going with the you know everything we feel strong newspaper the press a. question on the decision the u.s. a $58.00 took on the 25th of february concerning the the suggested temperature for storage and transport of the pontiff finds a vaccine does the may already have

a plan for when it's going to you know find any any decision on this matter give a recommendation to the member states whether this vaccine really has to be stored or transported to the mind of 70 degree celsius or could be also handled or at higher temperatures thank you. you know. yeah thank you very much and of course the the just pics of rolling out some of these vaccines is very important for making sure that they reach all populations so we are also looking at any new information on the storage conditions associated with the vaccine ringback we have. we have looked out the innu storage of the pfizer biotech vaccine. we will be coming out with an i value ation on this very shortly thank you thank you frank your dance.

yes which on your microphone frank. i hope you can hear me now frank jordan's from a.p. as good as. so some details have been coming out about both the cases that occurred in germany including that there were. 3 deaths among the m 7. circe v.t. cases and i'm wondering if you have any further information about those and other cases across the european union that you can share with us at this time yes thank you very much yes indeed we're we are receiving cases and more detailed more details of the circumstances of those cases effectively as we speak. what

we're understanding is that there may be sub they may be associated with some sub populations are there may indeed be some sub populations of the overall trouble balik events but i'm not in a position to comment on that particular cases that that come through problem germany other than to say that these are being discussed the public vigilance and risk assessment committee. don't have to. go ahead. here means we're you go are you going to and since you took my question is there any indication of a series of very adverse events especially the more serious ones are related in any way to specific batches doesn't matter because this is form part of the procedures for the way thank you interface yes thank you very much and this is

a very important point because the original a i think many of you will be aware that but some specific botches force suspected of being linked to these side events so we have actually mobilized our biological working parky to look carefully into the possibility or pose ability of any events live linked to specific pockets or in fact any difference in manufacturing in any way that might lead to something spiral he says across baucus. part of the investigation thank you. our correspondent go matters in brussels is following this story and has listened to the e.m.i. executive director. you've been listening what can you tell us in a nutshell. i would say in

a nutshell the key message here really is that there so far has been no causal relationship being established so there is no indication at presence that this particular vaccine astra zeneca is causing those blood clots that have been observed and some people have been vaccinated now of course you need to say that we are vaccinating healthy people and so the risk benefit analysis has to take that into account at the having said that however 11 also needs to point out that while those investigations are ongoing and she was spied optimistic to shortly come up with a result it's also a fact that so far it's been national you are authorities that have stopped the vaccination it's not the european medicines agency itself that has set stop using those vaccines biled we do some precautionary research whether there is a danger and that also tells you something about the likelihood that these 2 things

are connected. just to make that clear that the e m a says they want to do further testing or further have another committee meeting on and. talk about this on thursday that does not mean that national authorities have to stop the use of the astra zeneca vaccine doesn't. exactly i mean we've seen this before when for instance the approval was given for the us was any comeback scene it was different for all age groups from the european medical since agency but it was then for instance the german and national agency that said we have the data is not good enough for our national standards for the age group of the 64 years and older and so it was only given to younger age groups so yes there can be differences and at the end of the day the health matters are very much in the e.u. a nation state matter. do you think this will be viewed by all these deep words

like committee and evaluation do you think this will be viewed as just more exaggerated caution delaying the vaccination drive even further i think without doubt we have to say at this point that the e.u. but also particular member states like germany are taking an approach that can only be called better safe than sorry so they're very precaution airy very cautious approach particularly there's a good example from one of my colleagues who asked the 2nd question on the biotech pfizer and the storage temperatures you have to understand that for instance in the united states astra zeneca is still in the approval face but at the same time this so they're vaccinating with madonna and biotech pfizer but those vaccines are handed out by doctors by pharmacies even by supermarkets and here in the e.u. the current state of affairs is that this these 2 vaccines can only be handled at

minus 60 degrees minus 70 degrees and that is why in the you we have those huge vaccination centers so that was really particularly good news from from my perspective that the european medicines agency seems to come shortly with some new advice on how to store those particular vaccines because it would be a massive boost if the you would say those vaccines also like in the u.s. can be given by local doctors can be handed out by pharmacies my holy book in a process that thank you. you're watching the news coming up next in the news asia in india greater government control of online media companies and content creators ignites concerns over freedom and privacy. and chinese tech success part of what cost a report on the long working hours that are exhausting china's tech workers. those stories and a lot more coming up on news asia with my colleague bureaus of biology right after

this program don't forget you always find more news on our website d.w. dot com health has enveloped me of the team thanks for watching.

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