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.
Preparations take place at Stockholm's City Hall to convert the venue for the Nobel Prize banquets into a COVID-19 vaccination centre for a day on February 21 in the capital of Sweden, amid the novel coronavirus. Photo: VCG
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 9 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 in March 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 hemorrhages.
The EMA declared on Thursday 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.
Even prior to its recent woes in Europe, the jab had suffered several setbacks. Confidence in the vaccine has also been hit by mixed messaging.