The beginnings of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine against Covid-19 in Europe are laborious to say the least. Authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on March 11, it should have started arriving at doctors and pharmacies on April 19. But the appearance of eight severe cases of thromboembolic disorders (including one fatal) in the United States, where more than 7 million people have already been immunized with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, has delayed its deployment.
The experts of the EAJ mentioned, Tuesday, April 20, a “Possible link” between the administration of Janssen and these serious side effects, which appear in people under the age of 60, most often women, within three weeks of the injection. To explain these dangerous side effects, they have not, at this stage, identified any risk factor, such as gender or age, and put forward as “Plausible explanation” a “Immune response” body to the vaccine.
However, the “Benefits of this vaccine outweigh its risks”, insists Emer Cooke, the director general of the AEM, who recalls that “Last weekend 3 million new cases of Covid-19 were listed in the world”. In this context, the European regulator does not recommend that the use of Janssen be restricted. National health authorities will now have to make their recommendations.
That of the French High Authority of Health is expected at the end of the week. But, in view of the previous AstraZeneca – an adenovirus vaccine, like that of Johnson & Johnson, which caused thromboembolic events “Very similar”, according to the AEM – it is likely that most European countries will restrict its use to older people. On April 7, the AEM had in fact, more or less, drawn the same conclusions concerning the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, also at the origin of a few rare cases of serious blood clots. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is now reserved for people over 55 in France, and over 60 in Germany. In Denmark, it is forbidden …
Not so essential anymore
This chain of bad news for adenovirus vaccines, which in some countries, starting with France and Germany, now inspire relative confidence, is not good news, as variants multiply and the pandemic continues to spread. But the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – on which Europeans were counting until recently to speed up their vaccination campaign since it only requires one injection, when all the others require two – no longer seem so essential to them today. hui.
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