DUBLIN: Ireland suspended the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, following reports of blood clots in adults who received the shot in Norway.
“The administration of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is temporarily deferred from this morning, Sunday 14th March,” a health ministry spokesman said.
The move came after Ireland’s National Immunization Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended suspending the AstraZeneca rollout “on the precautionary principal” after “a report from the Norwegian Medicines Agency of four new reports of serious blood clotting events in adults after vaccination.”
“It has not been concluded that there is any link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the blood clot cases and action has been taken “pending receipt of further information,” Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn said in a statement.
The NIAC is due to meet on Sunday morning and to issue a further statement on the matter.
Some 570,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Ireland to date, according to government data last updated Wednesday.
A total of 109,000 of those doses have been manufactured by the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said the “an analysis of our safety data that covers reported cases from more than 17 million doses of vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk” in blood clot conditions.
“In fact, the reported numbers of these types of events for COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca are lower than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population,” a statement added.
Ireland – a nation of five million – has suffered 4,534 deaths from the coronavirus according to latest official figures.
The Republic is currently in the midst of its third lockdown after suffering a surge of cases which saw it become the world’s most infectious nation in early January.
The government is already under pressure from opposition lawmakers over a drought in vaccine supply amid a sluggish nationwide rollout tethered to the EU jabs program.
On Thursday health minister Stephen Donnelly said AstraZeneca is “repeatedly changing its delivery schedules, often at the last minute, and revising down the volumes it will deliver.”
“It is deeply frustrating for everybody, with so many people looking to get vaccinated as quickly as possible,” he told lawmakers in Ireland’s Dail lower house of parliament.
Ireland suspends AstraZeneca jab over blood clot fears
https://arab.news/w7n5h
Ireland suspends AstraZeneca jab over blood clot fears
- Ireland’s immunization advisory body recommended suspending the AstraZeneca rollout
- Some 570,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Ireland to date
A Paris court finds 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron
PARIS: A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man.
The court convicted all defendants to sentences ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences.
The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.
The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, are accused of having posted “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron ‘s wife was born a man and linking their 24-year age gap to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.
Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October. Speaking on TF1 national television Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.
Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.
Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021. She was given a 6-month prison sentence.
The X account of Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations. Poirson-Atlan was given an 8-month prison sentence.
Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted.
The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.
The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.
Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.
