Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that they were stopping the shipment of their Covid vaccine to Europe after thrombosis problems.

This decision was made after the US authorities (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) stopped vaccinations going ahead with J&J’s Belgian affiliate’s Janssen vaccine after six women aged between 18 and 48 suffered thrombotic episodes, one of whom died and another is in a critical state.

Spain had been expecting 300,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine to arrive in the country today, destined for the age group of those between 70 and 79. For the second half of June the Spanish Government hoped to received a total of 500,000,000 more doses.

Following the USA’s decision the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, assured that all of the different kinds of Covid vaccines used in the country are safe: “all of the vaccines in use in Spain and Europe count on every guarantee for safety.”

He pointed out that it is precisely these cautionary stoppages that clearly show that every care is taken with new vaccines to make sure that they are safe.

It was pointed out on one of the private, national TV channels (La Sexta) yesterday that you are seven times more likely to win the national lottery than to suffer a thrombotic episode with AstraZeneca, given the few cases there have been compared amongst the total number of people vaccinated.

Janssen has 66.3% efficiency against Covid 19 in clinical tests and generally has mild side effects, mainly amongst people aged between 18 and 59.

Editorial comment: with these cautionary stoppages, coupled with political point-scoring, it’s hard to see how herd immunity will be achieved before the end of August, as is forecast.

(News: Spain)