TIG Post

Tag: AstraZeneca

  • Citi FM, TV3 and GHOne did not err in report on AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine – Bridget Otoo

    Ghanaian journalist Bridget Otoo has indicated that media outlets Citi FM, TV3 and GHOne did not misreport the potential severe side effects of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. 

    She highlighted on the X platform that the company itself admitted to these risks in court documents.

    “The company that made the Covid vaccine has admitted in court documents that it causes severe and dangerous side effects. Same company issues a PR statement to say they are withdrawing the drug for “commercial reasons” You on twitter say we should believe “the commercial reason and not the severe and dangerous side effects” The fact that a company had to be forced in court to admit this is enough reason to doubt anything they put out. Citi FM, Tv3 and GHONE did not err in their report, they simply reported what the company had admitted in court,” she wrote.

    Recently, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca made the significant move to globally withdraw its Covid-19 vaccine due to mounting evidence of potential life-threatening risks.

    This decision followed months of scrutiny and concerns over the vaccine’s safety.

    The British-Swedish company had already halted the marketing of its vaccine, known as Vaxzevria, across the European Union in 2021.

     The withdrawal of its EU marketing authorization was prompted by an oversupply of updated vaccines targeting new Covid-19 variants, leading to decreased demand for Vaxzevria.

    AstraZeneca’s acknowledgment of the vaccine’s potential to cause severe side effects, including blood clots and low blood platelet counts, became public knowledge during a class action lawsuit in the UK.

    Court documents revealed the company’s admission of the rare but alarming thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) associated with the vaccine.

    Despite being initially hailed as a crucial tool in the fight against the pandemic, AstraZeneca’s vaccine faced mounting scrutiny as reports of adverse reactions emerged.

    The company eventually conceded that the vaccine could, in rare instances, result in fatal outcomes.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) also recognized the vaccine’s link to thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, adding to the concerns about its safety profile.

    A report by the independent.co.uk indicates that in response to the controversy, AstraZeneca defended its vaccine’s contribution to ending the pandemic, citing estimates of millions of lives saved and billions of doses administered globally. 

    However, the decision to withdraw the vaccine underscores the seriousness of the safety concerns surrounding its use.

  • AstraZeneca to stop producing the Covid vaccines

    AstraZeneca to stop producing the Covid vaccines

    The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is being taken off the market after more than three billion doses have been given.

    AstraZeneca said it was very happy with the vaccine, and it made a decision for business reasons.

    It said that because new versions of the coronavirus are spreading, people are now wanting the newer vaccines. The vaccine saved a lot of lives but also caused some rare and deadly blood clots.

    Scientists at Oxford University created the Covid vaccine very quickly to help end the pandemic lockdowns. A procedure that usually lasts 10 years was speeded up to about 10 months.

    In November 2020, a vaccine was praised as “a vaccine for the world” because it was less expensive and could be stored more easily than other vaccines for Covid. The big drug company AstraZeneca agreed to make a lot of it.

    At first, it was a key part of the UK’s plan to use vaccines to end the lockdown.

    Prof Adam Finn from the University of Bristol said that the vaccine made a big difference and helped us get out of the bad situation we were in at that time, along with the Pfizer vaccine.

    But people started to worry about the vaccine when they learned that it could cause rare blood clots. Because of this, the UK started using different vaccines instead.

    AstraZeneca said that over 6. 5 million lives were saved in the first year of use, according to independent estimates.

    “Many governments around the world have praised our work and see it as an important part of stopping the global pandemic.”
    It means that because new vaccines are better at fighting the new forms of Covid, the old vaccines are not needed as much. So, the company is not making or selling the old vaccine anymore.

    Prof Finn said that he believes the vaccine is being taken off the market because it is no longer helpful.

    “This virus can change quickly and has changed in a way that makes the original vaccines ineffective. Only the updated vaccines are likely to be used now. “

  • Ghana receives 249,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government

    Ghana has received an extra 249,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom government.

    This was announced by the UK government through its official Twitter handle, @UKinGhana and retweeted by the Ministry of Health, Ghana, handle @mohgovgh.

    “This morning 249,000 Flag of United Kingdom-donated #COVID19 vaccines arrived at #Kotoka Int. Airport, now they are being transported across Flag of Ghana to health workers, those most in need & those waiting for their 2nd dose. Thank you to our partners: @_GHSofficial, @UNICEF, @gavi, @CEPIvaccines & @mohgovgh,” the tweet read.

    Retweeting this, the Ministry of Health page wrote, “AstraZeneca vaccine. Thank you @UK Government.”

    On August 8, Ghana took delivery of its first batch of 177,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to augment the national vaccination exercise against the Coronavirus.

    Ghana has received an extra 249,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom government.

    This was announced by the UK government through its official Twitter handle, @UKinGhana and retweeted by the Ministry of Health, Ghana, handle @mohgovgh.

    “This morning 249,000 Flag of United Kingdom-donated #COVID19 vaccines arrived at #Kotoka Int. Airport, now they are being transported across Flag of Ghana to health workers, those most in need & those waiting for their 2nd dose. Thank you to our partners: @_GHSofficial, @UNICEF, @gavi, @CEPIvaccines & @mohgovgh,” the tweet read.

    Retweeting this, the Ministry of Health page wrote, “AstraZeneca vaccine. Thank you @UK Government.”

    On August 8, Ghana took delivery of its first batch of 177,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to augment the national vaccination exercise against the Coronavirus.

    The Johnson & Johnson single-shot Coronavirus vaccines are the first of monthly supplies under an arrangement with the African Union, making the country one of the first in the region to receive the vaccines that were manufactured in Africa, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said in the statement.

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Northern Region to dispose of about 2,000 expired AstraZeneca vaccines

    Ghana will have to dispose of some COVID-19 vaccines because of expiry dates on the shots according to authorities.

    The Northern Region alone is estimating that some 2,000 shots of AstraZeneca Coronavirus vaccines will expire tomorrow, April 16 and thus will have to be disposed of.

    According to the Regional Director for Public Health, Hilarius Abiwu, who spoke to the national broadcaster, GBC, the AstraZeneca shots which were produced in October 2020 have a life span of 6-months.

    “So effectively, that six months will be on the 16th of this month,” he told the GBC. He furthered that a safety directive by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to hold off vaccinations a few days to the date of expiry means his outfit must halt administering jabs from Wednesday, April 14.
    Mr Abiwu added: “three days ago, we had more than 5000 doses. And more than 2,000 close to 3,000 of these doses were taken up by people.”

    The development comes amid rising concerns relative to the uptake of vaccines across the country even though reports indicate that over 800,000 people nationwide had received their first shots.

    It is not known as yet what volumes of vaccines other regions will have to dispose of considering that the largest consignment so far is the 600,000 doses that were supplied via the COVAX platform.

    Ghana became the first country under the COVAX facility a global equitable vaccine sharing platform led by the WHO and other international partners.

    The vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India arrived in Ghana in late February following which a national roll-out was started in early March.

    Another African country on record to have spoken about destroying expired vaccines is Malawi, where some estimated 16,400 doses supplied by the AU is to be destroyed, the health minister confirmed.

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com

  • Ghana yet to receive second shots of AstraZeneca vaccines Okoe-Boye

    A former Deputy Health Minister, Bernard Okoe-Boye has disclosed that Ghana only received first shots of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX equitable vaccine sharing platform.

    In late February 2021, Ghana became the first country in the world to receive vaccines under the COVAX platform.

    600,000 shots were delivered to much fanfare at the Kotoka International Airport, KIA; and a national rollout started in early March with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo receiving the first shot.

    Speaking on Tuesday evening (April 6) on the Face To Face program on Accra-based Citi TV, the former deputy minister said Ghana was ready to purchase the second shots if need be.

    “We rolled all (600,000 shots) out, as we speak, I am sure we will be nearing 700,000 (vaccinations). Remember, apart from COVAX, we have had supplies from the Africa medicine supplies platform.

    “We are working hard, the president himself is involved, the Minister of Health is involved, the Ghana Health Service, we are all involved. Remember, if we even have to buy the vaccines outside COVAX, we are willing to do that especially for the second dose,” he added.

    He also disclosed that the government, through the Bank of Ghana, BoG, has raised Letters of Credit to purchase vaccines especially Sputnik V the Russian vaccines passed for emergency use in Ghana last month.

    “As I speak, government is working on LCs to purchase vaccines, some of the Sputnik vaccines, we are looking at buying in the short term about 2 million. In the medium to long term before the end of the year, we are looking at about 10 million from Sputnik.”

    Asked about how long it will take for the jabs to arrive in the country, he assures that once agreements were reached, the supplies could be delivered in under 24 hours.

    “Luckily, most of these are not put on a ship, so a maximum of six, eight or maximum 12 hours and the vaccines are here, anything can happen any day. LCs have gone all the way to Bank of Ghana with Ghana having made commitments to buy them,” he added.

    Source: www.ghanaweb.com