Germany pauses AstraZeneca vaccine again with 31 new cases of blood clotting

Germany’s vaccine coordinator announced on Tuesday that it has registered 31 cases of blood clots in the brain, nine of which resulted in death. Most (seven) of dead were women, and all casualties were aged between 20-63.

Germany has now once again decided to suspend vaccination with AstraZeneca’s vaccine for anyone under the age of 60 as the blood clots mainly affected this age group. However, the elderly continue to receive the vaccine, Reuters reported.

In total, AstraZeneca has issued 2,7 million doses of vaccine in Germany.

A 58-year-old woman died in Dessau-Roßlau after an AstraZeneca vaccination. The press office of the city administration announced this on Wednesday. “There is a suspicion that there is a possible connection between the vaccination and the death of the citizen,” said city spokesman Carsten Sauer after the meeting of the pandemic staff. That must now be clarified.

The woman was vaccinated on Friday March 19. An initial report that the vaccination took place on March 29 was corrected by the city in the late afternoon.

At the instruction of the pandemic staff, AstraZeneca vaccination in Dessau-Roßlau was therefore suspended for the time being. “Instead, the BioNTech vaccine will be used,” said Sauer.

The already existing vaccination appointments, including on Easter Saturday, will remain, according to the city administration.

Similarly, the district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, announced on Monday that vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine for women under 55 years of age will be suspended with immediate effect. Men will be able to get the jab however. Two women in the district had previously developed sinus vein thrombosis after the vaccinations, and one 47-year-old patient died, RT reported.

The other patient is being cared for in a special clinic and is in stable condition, according to a statement from the district. Investigations into both cases have been launched, the responsible state and federal authorities announced.

The decision to halt the AstraZeneca vaccine came from the head of the health department and the chief vaccinator. According to District Administrator Markus Ramers it was simply a precautionary measure however. “No vaccine is destroyed – all women who cannot be offered a vaccination today or tomorrow will be re-vaccinated in a timely manner.”

It is a precautionary measure until the responsible specialist departments have come to a final assessment. Thus the vaccinations for men as well as vaccinations with the vaccines of other pharmaceutical companies are also expected to continue.

But notably, none of the three other experimental Covid-19 vaccines now being distributed in the US and Europe have been demonstrated to protect against infection with or transmission of the virus believed to cause SARS-CoV-2, or even prevent symptoms of the disease from developing.

The benefit from any of the vaccines distributed currently is being touted as the vaccinated showing lesser or fewer symptoms after becoming infected. While this is an important consideration, this benefit evidently has nothing to do with preventing the spread of the virus SARS-Cov-2 or mandating vaccine “passports”.

On February 27, 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it had “issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the third vaccine” which is the Janssen (Johnson&Johnson) jab, identical to the EUAs previously issued for Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna.

In each of the EUAs, the FDA has avoided any claim that the vaccines provide protection against infection or transmission of the virus. Also, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have each publicly stated that the vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission. On January 29, 2021, the WHO admitted: “We do not know whether the vaccines will prevent infection and protect against onward transmission.”

In the FDA’s own Briefing Document on clinical trial data for the Pfizer vaccine, it stated that “data are limited to assess the effect of the vaccine against asymptomatic infection” and “data are limited to assess the effect of the vaccine against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 [virus] from individuals who are infected despite vaccination”. Ditto for Moderna and the Janssen vaccine for which it cited the same “limited” data.

A vaccine obligation therefore, may require people who are already immune to still get vaccinated, which makes no sense, while plans for a future clinical trial to measure infection prevention, will not be completed until December 31, 2023.