The pausing of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations due to a handful of blood clots in the United States throws the Irish programme “up in the air completely,” a virologist has said.
Gerald Barry, assistant professor of virology at University College Dublin, said the rollout would be damaged by the suspension of the one-shot vaccine and restriction of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab to people over the age of 60. Any delay is a “huge blow,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson is delaying European deliveries after six American women aged 18 to 48 developed extremely rare blood clotting cases. Yesterday the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control recommended pausing use of the vaccine.
Barry said: “We understand the risk-benefit analysis and it makes sense why they made this decision — a cautious decision — but the public are not going to understand that. I am especially concerned for people over 60 who are getting AstraZeneca and who are concerned about the safety since they are hearing that it isn’t safe for younger people. It seems that the waters have muddied a lot.”
He added: “At the moment it isn’t logistically possible to give people a choice of vaccines — we don’t have the IT system to do that — so there is a possibility this is going to increase vaccine hesitancy.
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“There is a lot of weight on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it is a single-shot vaccine so it simplifies the rollout.”
Ireland reported 358 coronavirus cases and 18 deaths yesterday, bringing the official death toll to 4,803 and the infection count to 241,684.
The European Commission is seeking clarification from Johnson & Johnson about its “completely unexpected” announcement of delays. The US manufacturer said yesterday: “We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public.”
Ireland has ordered 2.2 million Johnson & Johnson shots, compared with 3.3 million Oxford-AstraZeneca, 2.5 million CureVac and 2.3 million Pfizer-BioNTech. The first shipment was due this week and 40,800 doses were expected to be administered this month. More than 6.8 million Americans have had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee has recommended restricting the AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged over 60 after European regulators found a possible link between the vaccine and a rare blood clotting condition. All appointments for under-60s were cancelled yesterday. About 813,000 AstraZeneca vaccines are due to be delivered by the end of June, including 224,000 in April.
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By Sunday AstraZeneca accounted for almost a quarter of Ireland’s 1,063,666 administered doses. In total, 749,450 people, or 15 per cent of the population, have received the first dose and 314,216, or 6.3 per cent, are fully vaccinated.
Professor Karina Butler, chairwoman of the advisory committee, told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday that the rare cases of blood clotting were serious. “We have a very rare side-effect but with serious consequences, but on the other hand we have a disease that has a very high rate of death as well,” Butler said.
“Knowing how much disease is around the place, what the rates of this are, we are trying to find who might be at most at risk while trying to find a safe path through those risks and balance those risks as best as possible.
“What we know from the [European Medicines Agency] reports is that most of these cases have occurred in people under the age of 60 . . . That could be influenced by the fact that there were a lot of healthcare workers under the age of 60 vaccinated.”
Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste, said officials would know in the coming days whether they could meet the target of giving 80 per cent of adults their first dose by June. He told Newstalk Breakfast yesterday: “The risk of getting this very rare blood clotting disorder, that is probably treatable, is minuscule compared to the risk of getting Covid and getting sick or dying from that.”
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The government is seeking advice on whether fully vaccinated people can avoid facing mandatory hotel quarantine. The idea was backed yesterday by Simon Harris, the further and higher education minister.
There have been several court challenges against the hotel quarantine system. Harris told Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 that forcing fully vaccinated people into quarantine was “illogical”.
“What the government has committed to doing is looking at that with our medical experts,” he said. “We need to prioritise mandatory hotel quarantine which I think is necessary — prioritise it to those most at risk of bringing it into our country, particularly new variants.”