Coronavirus: European Union Ministers of Health meet today for AstraZeneca vaccine

The Portuguese presidency of the European Union (EU) called for today an extraordinary meeting of the ministers of Health of the region. They will analyze the decision adopted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the vaccine of AstraZeneca against him coronavirus.

The Spanish Ministry of Health led by Carolina Darias has reported the convening of this meeting.

The EMA is going to announce this afternoon its conclusions on the evaluation carried out in recent weeks of the safety of the vaccine of AstraZeneca, in relation to the unusual cases of thromboembolism reported in several patients after administration of the serum.

If it continues to recommend its use in the EU, it will decide whether to ban it in certain groups defined by age, sex or medical history considering that they could have a greater risk of developing blood clots, provided that it concludes that these events are really linked to vaccination .

Once the conclusions of the European Medicines Agency are known, the European Ministers of Health will meet electronically to adopt possible decisions on their administration.

The successive analyzes of this drug in the EMA have led several European countries to tweak their vaccination strategies to, alternatively, administer this vaccine to different age groups as the different side effects were made public, changes not always supported by the scientific evidence available to the EMA.

After the meeting of EU Health Ministers, the Spanish Minister of Health will meet with the Spanish regional officials in this area to analyze the EMA reports on the vaccine, among other issues.

It so happens that today the regional government of Castilla y León (north-center) decided to suspend the scheduled vaccination with AstraZeneca, until knowing the safety report that the EMA will prepare, which affects several mass vaccinations planned in the region.

Spain has promoted in recent days the vaccination process in all regions, with the implementation of large vaccination spaces, especially with doses from this laboratory, which are being inoculated to people between 60 and 65 years old.