The AstraZeneca vaccine has suffered a setback in the past few days as France, Germany and Italy have joined a “growing list” of European countries, now more than a dozen in total, to halt its use “temporarily”, says The Economist. A few countries in the rest of the world, including Indonesia, have followed suit. This “wave of suspensions” has been set in motion by data from a Norwegian medical regulator reporting four cases of blood clotting in adults given the vaccine. Similar scattered reports of blood clots “have come from Denmark, Italy and Austria”.
Those countries suspending the vaccine are behaving irrationally, says David Spiegelhalter in The Guardian. While suspected reactions “should be investigated”, moving too fast may lead to regulators “drawing causal links between events where none may exist”.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Lasting reputational damage
Experts agree that the decisions to suspend the vaccine look wrong, especially since the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU’s main regulator, continues to defend it, says Paul Cullen in the Irish Times. However, even if these countries eventually change their minds, the damage to the reputation of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be “massive and possibly lasting”. Despite its “impressively high effectiveness in real-world trials”, disparaging comments by many European politicians, as well as a perception that it is less effective in older patients, mean that it is facing a high degree of “consumer resistance”.
Concern over blood clots and lower effectiveness aren’t the only problem that AstraZeneca is up against, say Suzi Ring and Michelle Fay Cortez on Bloomberg. There is also the ongoing controversy over “manufacturing issues”, which means that the company will “only be able to deliver about 100 million doses to the EU in the first half of the year”, about one-third of the number originally planned.
AstraZeneca’s loss could be other companies’ gain, says Aimee Donnellan on Breakingviews. The EU has set itself a target of vaccinating 70% of its population, around 350 million people, by the summer. But without AstraZeneca’s vaccines, it will only have enough for 250 million people. So if Europe is to avoid having to impose more lockdowns in the winter, when infections start to pick up, Brussels will need to “speedily approve and distribute” other candidates, such as Johnson & Johnson’s jab, which got the nod from the EMA last week.
-
5 alternatives to Reeves’ inheritance tax raid on rural Britain as families face ‘splitting up or selling’ farmsInheritance tax limits are now so low they attack small working family farms rather than just going after tax loopholes, one Cotswolds farmer has said
-
High earners at risk of £65k retirement shockHigh earners could face some of the biggest pension shortfalls when they retire, as the cost of maintaining an expensive lifestyle could erode their retirement savings
-
Are wealthy whisky enthusiasts leaving Britain?Collectables Wealthy whisky enthusiasts are heading to tax-friendly countries such as Dubai, where there is more disposable income to spend on collectable luxuries like rare whisky.
-
'The rise and fall of Kodak is a lesson for the tech giants'Opinion The long decline of Kodak – a once-dominant company – shows why no business is safe from disruption, says Matthew Lynn
-
8 of the best properties for sale with kitchen gardensThe best properties for sale with kitchen gardens – from a 17th-century timber-framed hall house in Norfolk, to an Arts & Crafts house in West Sussex designed by Charles Voysey with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll
-
Why investors can no longer trust traditional statistical indicatorsOpinion The statistical indicators and data investors have relied on for decades are no longer fit for purpose. It's time to move on, says Helen Thomas
-
Investors rediscover the virtue of value investing over growthGrowth investing, betting on rapidly expanding companies, has proved successful since 2008. But now the other main investment style seems to be coming back into fashion.
-
8 of the best properties for sale with shooting estatesThe best properties for sale with shooting estates – from an estate in a designated Dark Sky area in Ayrshire, Scotland, to a hunting estate in Tuscany with a wild boar, mouflon, deer and hare shoot
-
The most likely outcome of the AI boom is a big fallOpinion Like the dotcom boom of the late 1990s, AI is not paying off – despite huge investments being made in the hope of creating AI-based wealth
-
What we can learn from Britain’s "Dashing Dozen" stocksStocks that consistently outperform the market are clearly doing something right. What can we learn from the UK's top performers and which ones are still buys?
