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Over 207,000 Romanians scheduled to take the AstraZeneca jab have called off their appointment starting March, when there were first reports about a potential link between this vaccine and sever blood clots.
“There were over 207,000 cancellations within the online platform, and among those who confirmed the appointment, we have around 99,000 who did not show up for vaccination, which represents 28% of those who had confirmed the appointment”, said Valeriu Gheorghiță, the coordinator of the national vaccination campaign.
“It is a high percent, a third of the people who scheduled for vaccination did not show up. We consider that anyone who wants to get vaccinated needs to better understand this aspect. People’s hesitating is normal and legitimate at this point. We need more official information from the European Medicine Agency. We, the decision makers, we also need more information“, he mentioned.
He added that, most probably, those who cancelled their appointment for AstraZeneca have subscribed on the waiting lists for another vaccine, as the number of the people on the lists remained constant.
Although the European Medicine Agency (EMA) had said some weeks ago that the benefits of the Astra Zeneca vaccine outweigh the risks and that it should remain in use, today a senior official in the European Medicines Agency has said there is a link between the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and blood clots.
“In my opinion, we can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine. But we still do not know what causes this reaction,” EMA head of vaccines Marco Cavaleri told Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper.
He said that “in the next few hours, we will say that there is a connection, but we still have to understand how this happens”.
The facemask, the last to be given up
The coordinator of the national vaccination campaign, doctor Valeriu Gheorghiță, said that wearing the facemasks will be the last restriction to be given up. He explained the mask will be a personal protection measure to be considered every cold season.
“We’ll be able to consider the benefits of vaccination starting from 35% people vaccinated, but we also look at other indicators as well. I consider that the protection mask will be the last to drop, meaning after we have 10 million people vaccinated. And when we have over 5 million people vaccinated, I will propose PM Florin Citu what’s happening now in the U.S.: no face mask worn within small groups of vaccinated people”, he said.
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