Thailand postpones AstraZeneca Vaccination after Safety Concerns

The Thai authorities decided to postpone the vaccination against COVID-19 with Oxford-AstraZeneca on Friday, the day after some European countries did the same due to its possible adverse effects.

The suspension for two weeks was announced in extremis at a press conference in which in principle they planned to report on the start of the vaccination with the drug that was going to have the Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, and other ministers among the first inoculated.

“We have to delay vaccination with AstraZeneca,” said the Thai government adviser on vaccination against covid-19, Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn, who said the decision was made after the temporary suspension announced in Denmark.

However, other countries such as Vietnam, Australia and the Philippines have decided to continue with the vaccine produced jointly by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).

Danish authorities announced on Thursday the suspension of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine for 14 days after registering “serious cases of thrombi” in people who had received it, including one death.

Subsequently, other countries such as Italy, Norway and Iceland took similar measures as a precaution, although others such as Spain and the United Kingdom continue to rely on the drug.

In a preliminary study, the European Medicines Agency recommended “continuing to administer” the vaccine in the European Union (EU), considering that “the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh its risks”, although it continues to study reports of clotting problems .

Thailand began vaccinating last month with the drug from the Chinese company Sinovac, but its strategy relies more heavily on Oxford-AstraZeneca, from which it received some 117,000 doses last month.

The Asian country, with some 69 million inhabitants, also expects to produce another 61 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca from June in a local laboratory owned by the Thai king, Vajiralongkorn.

So far, covid-19 has caused some 26,000 infections and 85 deaths in Thailand, where a second wave that began in December has remitted fewer than 100 daily cases.