A decision by multinational pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine from the global market has resurrected discussions surrounding vaccine safety.
For some Ghanaian online users, the giant pharmaceutical company’s move confirms uncertainty about the vaccine.
Ghanaian journalist, Bridget Otoo’s response to news about the vaccine’s withdrawal
Similarly, some local press reports’ headlines have been framed to suggest that the withdrawal was linked to the company’s acknowledgment of side effects after vaccination.
Leading online news portal, Citinewsroom.com’s headline to the story
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic, several countries, including Ghana, continue to record cases. Ghana also continues to administer vaccines to its citizens to curtail the spread of the disease.
This article explains why the vaccine is being withdrawn, the risks associated with the vaccines, and Ghana Health Services’ response to the controversy.
Why the withdrawal
Earlier this month, the company announced the withdrawal of its vaccine, Vaxzevria, from the global market.
The company cited a decline in demand that follows updated vaccines designed to combat new variants.
“We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic. According to independent estimates, over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone.”
“As multiple, variant COVID-19 vaccines have since been developed, there is a surplus of available updated vaccines. This has led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” excerpts from a statement from the company that has been widely featured in international press reports.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), an agency of the European Union (EU) in charge of evaluating and supervising pharmaceutical products, has since published a notice on its website announcing that the vaccine is no longer authorised to be sold in EU countries.
The vaccine was for preventing COVID-19 in people aged 18 years and older.
Side effects of the jab
Several side effects are associated with the vaccine, the most common being “tenderness, pain and bruising at the injection site, headache, tiredness, muscle pain, and nausea”. The EMA says these may “affect more than 1 in 10 people”.
The British Heart Foundation reports that most side effects are mild and short-term.
The vaccine has also been linked to a rare but serious side effect called thrombocytopenia, a blood clotting condition that occurs when the platelet count in the blood is too low. According to the EMA, this may affect 1 in 10 people.
Another side effect, which the company admitted to recently in court documents, is Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS). According to the EMA, this effect and Guillain-Barré syndrome (a neurological disorder in which the body’s immune system damages nerve cells) may affect up to 1 in 10,000 people.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published several other side effects of the vaccine.
Ghana’s response
The Ghana Health Service insists that there is no cause for alarm. In a media engagement, the Service’s Director-General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, argued that “all vaccines have side effects,” adding that complications from taking the AstraZeneca vaccine were “very rare.”
“There is no medicine on earth that doesn’t have some side effects, but how frequent is it? If it is very common, the system will not even allow it in the market at all”, he told journalists.
While indicating that the AstraZeneca vaccine has not been administered in Ghana since 2022, Mr Kuma-Aboagye also reported no record of adverse effects among recipients in Ghana.
“Even in Ghana, since 2022, we have not administered the AstraZeneca vaccine. We use the Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna vaccines. We have not had any cases related to adverse effects after vaccination, even after administering over 11.9 million AstraZeneca shots. On our record, we do not have anybody who has reported thrombosis after taking the AstraZeneca jab,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Peace FM (2:00 to 4:00).
Conclusion
Although there are adverse effects to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the company says the decision is commercial. Within the Ghanaian context, the Ghana Health Service says that it has not administered the AstraZeneca vaccine for nearly two years. They have also indicated no reports of vaccine recipients suffering from adverse effects in Ghana.
