LONDON: Trust in AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in many European countries has plunged following controversy around the jab in recent weeks, according to a new survey unveiled Monday by British pollsters YouGov.
A majority of people in the biggest European Union member states, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, now see the inoculation as unsafe, the recent poll found.
However, views of the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant’s jab remain overwhelming positive in Britain, where two-thirds of respondents said it is safe, compared to just nine percent believing it is not.
The findings come at a tumultuous time for the AstraZeneca vaccine and the EU’s troubled inoculation campaign, as a third virus wave on the continent prompts renewed social restrictions.
Meanwhile, Britain and the bloc are embroiled in an increasingly acrimonious war of words over supplies, with Brussels warning it may halt AstraZeneca vaccine exports.
The drop in Europeans’ faith in the jab, developed in partnership with Oxford University in the UK, follows weeks of turmoil on the continent over safety fears.
Earlier this month several EU countries suspended its use, pending a review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after dozens of isolated cases of blood clots and brain haemorrhages.
The EMA last week declared the AstraZeneca jab “safe and effective,” with the WHO and Britain’s drugs watchdog issuing similar endorsements.
That led European countries to resume administering the vaccine, but not before severely damaging confidence in it.
In its mid-March survey, YouGov found 55 percent of Germans now say the vaccine as unsafe — a 15 point rise in a month — compared to 32 percent viewing it as safe.
In already more vaccine-hesitant France, 61 percent of respondents said it was unsafe, while Italy and Spain both saw a 27-point monthly jump in the number of people saying they did not trust the jab.
No similar increases in safety fears were seen for rival vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, YouGov said.
The pollsters interviewed 2,024 Germans, and around 1,000 adults in each of the other countries between March 12 and 18.
“After concerns about its protection and potency were raised by leaders across Europe, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has undoubtedly suffered damage to its reputation for safety on the continent,” said Matt Smith, lead data journalist at YouGov.
“With a third wave of infections potentially emerging now across the Channel, officials everywhere will be worried if ongoing rows about AstraZeneca’s vaccine ends up damaging the rollout.”
Even prior to its recent woes in Europe, the jab — which is among the cheapest available, relatively easy to store and billed as the vaccine of choice for poorer nations — had suffered several setbacks.
They include South Africa asking to send back one million doses after researchers found it had failed to prevent mild and moderate cases of a more contagious virus variant there.
Confidence in the vaccine has also been hit by mixed messaging.
French President Emmanuel Macron said at the end of January the vaccine was “quasi-ineffective for people over 65,” despite the EMA approving its use for all ages.
Poll shows plunge in Europeans’ trust in AstraZeneca jab
https://arab.news/wtxq9
Poll shows plunge in Europeans’ trust in AstraZeneca jab
- Views of the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant’s jab remain overwhelming positive in Britain
- The European Medicines Agency (EMA), WHO and Britain’s drugs watchdog had declared the AstraZeneca jab “safe and effective”
In show of support, Canada, France open consulates in Greenland
- Decisions taken in a strong show of support for Greenland government amid threats by US President Trump to seize the island
COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Canada and France, which both adamantly oppose Donald Trump’s wish to control Greenland, will open consulates in the Danish autonomous territory’s capital on Friday, in a strong show of support for the local government.
Since returning to the White House last year, Trump has repeatedly insisted that Washington needs to control the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island for security reasons.
The US president last month backed off his threats to seize Greenland after saying he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater American influence.
A US-Denmark-Greenland working group has been established to discuss ways to meet Washington’s security concerns in the Arctic, but the details of the talks have not been made public.
While Denmark and Greenland have said they share Trump’s security concerns, they have insisted that sovereignty and territorial integrity are a “red line” in the discussions.
“In a sense, it’s a victory for Greenlanders to see two allies opening diplomatic representations in Nuuk,” said Jeppe Strandsbjerg, a political scientist at the University of Greenland.
“There is great appreciation for the support against what Trump has said.”
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Paris’s plans to open a consulate during a visit to Nuuk in June, where he expressed Europe’s “solidarity” with Greenland and criticized Trump’s ambitions.
The newly-appointed French consul, Jean-Noel Poirier, has previously served as ambassador to Vietnam.
Canada meanwhile announced in late 2024 that it would open a consulate in Greenland to boost cooperation.
The opening of the consulates is “a way of telling Donald Trump that his aggression against Greenland and Denmark is not a question for Greenland and Denmark alone, it’s also a question for European allies and also for Canada as an ally, as a friend of Greenland and the European allies also,” Ulrik Pram Gad, Arctic expert at the Danish Institute of International Studies, told AFP.
“It’s a small step, part of a strategy where we are making this problem European,” said Christine Nissen, security and defense analyst at the Europa think tank.
“The consequences are obviously not just Danish. It’s European and global.”
Recognition
According to Strandsbjerg, the two consulates — which will be attached to the French and Canadian embassies in Copenhagen — will give Greenland an opportunity to “practice” at being independent, as the island has long dreamt of cutting its ties to Denmark one day.
The decision to open diplomatic missions is also a recognition of Greenland’s growing autonomy, laid out in its 2009 Self-Government Act, Nissen said.
“In terms of their own quest for sovereignty, the Greenlandic people will think to have more direct contact with other European countries,” she said.
That would make it possible to reduce Denmark’s role “by diversifying Greenland’s dependence on the outside world, so that it is not solely dependent on Denmark and can have more ties for its economy, trade, investments, politics and so on,” echoed Pram Gad.
Greenland has had diplomatic ties with the European Union since 1992, with Washington since 2014 and with Iceland since 2017.
Iceland opened its consulate in Nuuk in 2013, while the United States, which had a consulate in the Greenlandic capital from 1940 to 1953, reopened its mission in 2020.
The European Commission opened its office in 2024.
