Falls come as US trial finds vaccine 100 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisations
Public trust in AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has fallen in several European countries since their governments paused use of the vaccine last week, a survey has found, as the company published a trial from the United States that found the vaccine was 100 per cent effective at reducing hospitalisations and deaths.
The polling company YouGov reported on 22 March that among people it surveyed in France, Germany, Italy and Spain—whose governments all paused use of the vaccine pending the results of an investigation into potential links to blood clots—more respondents saw the vaccine as unsafe than safe following the pauses.
Whereas before the pauses the proportions of people who thought the vaccine was safe were 33 per cent in France, 43 per cent in Germany, 54 per cent in Italy, and 59 per cent in Spain, after the pauses the proportions fell to 23 per cent, 32 per cent, 36 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.
Trust in Covid-19 vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer was higher than in the AstraZeneca vaccine before the pauses and has been unaffected by them.
“The decision by many countries, including many EU nations, suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine following concerns that it could cause blood clots, has hugely damaged public perceptions of the vaccine’s safety in Europe,” YouGov’s lead data journalist Matthew Smith said.
On 19 March, the European Medicines Agency said its investigation into whether the AstraZeneca vaccine is associated with an increased risk of blood clots had concluded that there is no overall increase in risk, and that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh a potential risk around very rare events that warrants further analysis.
The EMA had maintained that the benefits outweigh the risks during its investigation, and its executive director Emer Cooke warned that the pauses might harm trust in vaccines. Since it delivered its verdict, some governments that had paused their use of the jab, including those of France, Germany, Italy and Spain, have now resumed its use.
The survey findings came as AstraZeneca published interim results of its US trial of the vaccine in more than 32,000 people, which found that the jab was 79 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic cases and 100 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths.
Efficacy was consistent across age groups, and an independent safety board identified no concerns, the company said. Among the more than 21,000 participants who received the vaccine, it said the safety board found no increased risk of blood clotting events.