Europe’s medicines watchdog on Tuesday said the benefits of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine continue to outweigh the risks after several countries halted its use due to concerns about blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency’s Executive Director Emer Cooke said it was carrying out a case-by-case evaluation of incidents and was expected to complete a review on Thursday.
The update from Cooke came after a French official expressed hope that European medical experts would clear up questions over the safety of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus shot this week, as experts warned the decision by major European states to stop using it posed a greater risk to public health.
In a co-ordinated step, the European Union’s largest members — Germany, France and Italy — suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on Monday pending the outcome of an investigation by the bloc’s medicines regulator into isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts.
They were joined by Sweden and Latvia on Tuesday, bringing to more than a dozen the number of EU countries that have acted since reports first emerged of thromboembolisms affecting people after they got the AstraZeneca shot.
The World Health Organization and European Medicines Agency have joined AstraZeneca in saying there is no proven link.
“The choice is a political one,” Nicola Magrini, the director general of Italy’s medicines authority AIFA, told daily la Repubblica in an interview.
Magrini called the AstraZeneca vaccine safe and said its benefit-to-risk ratio was “widely positive.” There have been eight deaths and four cases of serious side-effects following vaccinations in Italy, he said.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran also told reporters that the risk-reward ratio for the vaccine remained positive.
“We expect some kind of verdict from the European scientific community by Thursday afternoon, allowing us to resume the campaign,” Veran said. France’s vaccination chief Alain Fischer said he expected the suspension to be temporary.
Governments say they acted out of an abundance of caution, with German Health Minister Jens Spahn stating on Monday that the decision to suspend AstraZeneca was not political but based on expert advice.
He acted after Germany’s vaccine watchdog identified an unusual number of cases of a rare cerebral vein thrombosis. Out of 1.6 million people in Germany who had got the AstraZeneca shot, seven fell ill and three died.
The risk of dying of COVID-19 is still orders of magnitude greater, especially among those most vulnerable such as the elderly, said Dirk Brockmann, an epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases.
“In the risk groups the risk of dying of COVID is much, much higher. That means one is probably 100,000 times more likely to die of COVID than because of an AstraZeneca vaccine,” Brockmann told ARD public television.
In Thailand, meanwhile, the prime minister received an AstraZeneca shot at the start of the country’s use of the vaccine on Tuesday.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha receives an injection of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Government House in Bangkok on Tuesday. (Thailand Government House/Reuters)
“There are people who have concerns,” Prayuth Chan-ocha said after his vaccination. “But we must believe doctors, believe in our medical professionals.”
Thailand initially was the first country outside Europe to temporarily suspend using the AstraZeneca vaccine. But Thailand’s health authorities later decided to go ahead with it, with Prayuth and members of his cabinet receiving the first shots.
Indonesia suspended use of the vaccine on Monday, saying it was waiting for a full report from the World Health Organization regarding possible side effects.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said that experts and Health Canada, “have spent an awful lot of time making sure every vaccine approved in Canada is both safe and effective.”
“The best vaccine for you to take is the very first one that is offered to you,” Trudeau said. “That’s how we get through this as quickly as possible and as safely as possible.”
National Advisory Committee on Immunization chair Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh said Tuesday the panel is continually studying new reports and studies on the vaccines, including the recent reports in Europe about blood clots.
WATCH | Dr. Christopher Labos, a Montreal cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology, answers questions about the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine:
Dr. Christopher Labos, a Montreal cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology, clarifies details about the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, and explains why he believes it’s safe. 5:04
–From Reuters, CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 10:25 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Ontario launches online vaccine booking system as concerns of 3rd wave grow:
Ontario’s provincial COVID-19 vaccine booking system launched to mixed reviews, with many saying they got an error message or waited in jammed phone queues. Meanwhile, doctors in the province raised concerns of a third wave of COVID-19 infections. 1:49
As of 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had reported 914,026 cases of COVID-19, with 31,608 cases considered active. A CBC News tally of deaths stood at 22,506.
Health officials in Ontario on Tuesday reported 1,074 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 additional deaths. A provincial dashboard put the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations at 761, and listed 292 of those as being in intensive care units.
The latest update comes a day after the Ontario Hospital Association said that the province is now in a third wave of infections, citing data from a science advisory group that shows virus variant cases increasing and the number of patients in intensive care trending up.
“Strong adherence to public health measures is urgently needed to prevent overwhelming hospitals,” the hospital group said on Twitter.
But the province’s top doctor said Ontario “could be going into” a third wave but the extent of it is still developing.
“You can always tell you’re in it after it’s over,” Dr. David Williams said. “I would say we are into that base of a third wave. What does that mean, how big it is, that’s to be determined.”
In Atlantic Canada, there was just one new case reported on Monday. Health officials in New Brunswick said the travel-related case was in the Edmundston region. There were no new cases reported in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador, which as of Monday had gone three straight days without any new cases.
In Quebec, health officials reported 594 new COVID-19 cases and 10 additional deaths on Monday. Hospitalizations rose by six, to 553, and 96 people were in intensive care, a drop of four.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba reported 50 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and no additional deaths. The province has seen 41 cases of variants of concern to date, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said, noting that health officials are trying to limit transmission as they cautiously move forward with efforts to loosen restrictions.
“I think we are really getting aggressive with our case and contact investigations,” Roussin said at a briefing on Monday. “We are going to be treating most cases as if they were variants of concern until proven otherwise.”
WATCH | Prince Rupert, B.C., offers vaccines to all adults after spike in cases:
Burdened with a rising COVID-19 infection rate and few resources for acute care, the Prince Rupert, B.C., area is offering all adults a vaccine now, regardless of age. 2:02
British Columbia, meanwhile, reported 1,506 new COVID-19 cases since Friday. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there were 10 COVID-19 deaths over the three-day period, bringing B.C.’s provincial death total to 1,407 people.
Across the North, there were no new cases reported in Nunavut,the Northwest Territories or Yukon.
–From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 10:30 a.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
Senior citizens receive doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine at a vaccination centre settled inside an Expo Centre in Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
As of early Tuesday morning, more than 120.2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, with 68.2 million cases listed on the Johns Hopkins University tracking site as recovered. The death toll stood at more than 2.6 million.
In the Americas, the United States should respond by Friday to Mexico’s request to share doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine it has in stock, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
Reuters reported this week that Mexico had asked for doses of the British-developed vaccine, since it has yet to be approved for use in the United States.
Mexico will also sign a contract on Tuesday with China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. to purchase 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, Ebrard said.
In the Asia-Pacific region, India, Cambodia and the Philippines’ capital Manila expanded curbs and issued new safety recommendations amid a sharp rise in infections.
China has approved another COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, adding a fifth shot to its arsenal.
The announcement came from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology. The vaccine was approved for use in Uzbekistan on March 1. The last phase of clinical trials is ongoing. No peer-reviewed data is publicly available about the vaccine’s safety or efficacy.
It’s a three-dose shot, with one month each between shots, a company spokesperson said. Like other vaccines China has developed, it can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures.
China has been slow in vaccinating its population of 1.4 billion people, despite having four vaccines approved for general use. The latest numbers, according to government officials at a press briefing Monday in Beijing, is 64.9 million doses of vaccines have been administered. They’ve mostly been given to health-care workers, those working at the border or customs, and specific industries.
In Europe, the European Commission said it has sealed a deal with Pfizer to speed up the dispatching of 10 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine over the next three months.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said speeding up the pace of deliveries across the 27-nation bloc would bring the total number of Pfizer doses in the second quarter to over 200 million.
Russia has identified two cases of the B1351 variant of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa, consumer health regulator Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement on Tuesday. Since the start of the pandemic, Russia has reported more than four million COVID-19 cases and over 90,000 deaths.
In the Middle East, Iran’s total number of reported cases rose to more than 1.7 million, with more than 61,300 deaths.
Iran’s campaign to inoculate its population against the coronavirus and promote itself as an emerging vaccine manufacturer inched on as health authorities announced Tuesday that the country’s third homegrown vaccine has reached the phase of clinical trials. Details about its production, however, remained slim.
Although Iran, with a population of more than 80 million, has so far imported foreign vaccines from Russia, China, India and Cuba to cover over 1.2 million people, concerns over its lagging pace of vaccinations have animated Iran’s drive to develop locally produced vaccines as wealthier nations snap up the lion’s share of vaccine doses worldwide.
In Africa, South Africa’s total number of reported cases is more than 1.5 million, with more than 51,400 deaths.
-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 10:35 a.m. ET
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.
“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”
The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.
“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”
The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.
“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.
Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.
Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.
It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.
“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”
A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.
If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.
The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.
As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.
Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.
“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.
The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.
___
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
___
Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
Vancouver Canucks winger Dakota Joshua is set to make his season debut Thursday after missing time for cancer treatment.
Head coach Rick Tocchet says Joshua will slot into the lineup Thursday when Vancouver (8-3-3) hosts the New York Islanders.
The 28-year-old from Dearborn, Mich., was diagnosed with testicular cancer this summer and underwent surgery in early September.
He spoke earlier this month about his recovery, saying it had been “very hard to go through” and that he was thankful for support from his friends, family, teammates and fans.
“That was a scary time but I am very thankful and just happy to be in this position still and be able to go out there and play,,” Joshua said following Thursday’s morning skate.
The cancer diagnosis followed a career season where Joshua contributed 18 goals and 14 assists across 63 regular-season games, then added four goals and four assists in the playoffs.
Now, he’s ready to focus on contributing again.
“I expect to be good, I don’t expect a grace period. I’ve been putting the work in so I expect to come out there and make an impact as soon as possible,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be perfect right from the get-go, but it’s about putting your best foot forward and working your way to a point of perfection.”
The six-foot-three, 206-pound Joshua signed a four-year, US$13-million contract extension at the end of June.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
