Anti-vax turn on Pfizer and Moderna as AstraZeneca withdraws Covid jab
- Experts today insisted the UK-based pharmaceutical titan’s Covid jab is still safe
- READ MORE: Everything you need to know as AstraZeneca withdraws its vaccine
Anti-vaxxers today called for Pfizer and Moderna to urgently withdraw their Covid jabs in the wake of heightened safety fears.
AstraZeneca’s landmark decision to withdraw its lockdown-banishing vaccine from global markets sparked hysteria online about the rival jabs – made using pioneering tech never utilised until the virus crisis spawned.
The UK-based pharmaceutical titan insisted its decision was a commercial one due to demand being slim, with its jab no longer being manufactured.
Ministers favour superior mRNA jabs, like those of Pfizer and Moderna, nowadays — yet these themselves have been wrongly linked by conspiracy theorists to a rise in heart-related deaths.
Once heralded as a ‘triumph for British science’, AstraZeneca’s vaccine, created with scientists at Oxford University, is estimated to have saved millions of lives during the pandemic.
Swedish journalist and political commentator Peter Imanuelsen labelled the move as ‘massive’, and said ‘raise your hand if you agree Pfizer and Moderna should be next’. In 2017, Mr Imanuelsen was accused of denying the Holocaust in social media posts. One allegedly claimed ‘Hitler had some good points’. At the time he claimed these screengrabs were fabricated
Mr Imanuelsen’s thoughts were echoed by other social media users, including one account with over 9,000 followers who said: ‘Why has the AstraZeneca vaccine been withdrawn but the Pfizer vaccine hasn’t?
Other tweets questioned the effectiveness of mRNA jabs, with one by user @MarwanNawaz claiming ‘two gene editing mRNA vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines retain approval.’ Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is a genetic blueprint that instructs cells to manufacture proteins in the body. For Covid, the mRNA vaccine instructs cells to make the spike protein found on the surface of the virus itself. It does not ‘gene edit’, unlike other therapies designed to disable genes
Yet is has faced intense scrutiny in recent months for a rare side effect which causes blood clots.
Eighty-one deaths in Britain have been linked to the blood clotting complication that AstraZeneca is facing legal action over. None of these are proven and are based on self-reported submissions to the UK’s medicines regulator.
Yet experts insist the jab is still safe.
Critics of the vaccine roll-outs, which scientists say consigned lockdowns to history at a time when nations had no other weapons in their arsenal, today weaponised the firm’s withdrawal.
Swedish journalist and political commentator Peter Imanuelsen labelled the move as ‘massive’, and said ‘raise your hand if you agree Pfizer and Moderna should be next’.
AstraZeneca’s Covid jab timeline
January 2020: Oxford University scientists start working on a Covid vaccine after the World Health Organization declares the spread of the virus a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’
March 2020: Then Prime Minister Boris announced the first national lockdown. That same month, the Government invests £88million in the development of the Oxford vaccine
April 2020: Alongside AstraZeneca, scientists start the first clinical trials of their new vaccine. This involved 1,000 volunteers in the UK
July 2020: Results from phase two trials of AstraZeneca’s jab are published
4 December 2020: Covid jab rollout begins with the Pfizer vaccine. Over-80s and care home workers are given priority
8 December 2020: Phase three trial results of the AstraZeneca’s jab are published. These are what health officials will use to approve the jab for use in the UK
30 December 2020: AstraZeneca’s jab is approved for emergency use
4 January 2021: First AstraZeneca doses start being dished out. Brian Pinker, 82, is the first person to receive the jab outside of clinical trials
8 January 2021: Frontline NHS staff start being offered vaccines
8 February 2021: Over-70s are called forward
14 February 2021: Roll-out opens up to Brits with underlying heath conditions, as well as the over-65s
28 February 2021: All over-60s are invited for jabs
11 March 2021: European countries start suspending use of the AstraZeneca jab after death of a 60-year-old woman from a blood clot
17 March 2021: Over 50s start being offered Covid jabs in the UK
19 March 2021: Several European countries reverse decision to suspend AstraZeneca jab after initial investigations find no link to reported blood clots
31 March 2021: People living with vulnerable adults are called forward to get a Covid vaccine in the UK, even if they are younger than eligible age groups
7 April 2021: UK restricts the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to over-30s over a small but statistically significant risk of blood clots in younger people
30 April 2021: Over-40s are called forward for Covid jabs
7 May 2021: Restriction of the AstraZeneca vaccine is widened to include over-40s
August 2022: Government sources say they will not order anymore AstraZeneca Covid vaccines instead focuses on mRNA alternatives
March 2023: Dozens of patients and families launch legal action against AstraZeneca due to
April 2023: Widower of a BBC presenter Lisa Shaw who died after having the vaccine said he has ‘no alternative’ but to sue AstraZeneca
4 August 2023: Anish Tailor, whose wife Alpa died in March 2021 after receiving her first AstraZeneca dose, filed a product liability claim against AstraZeneca at London’s High Court. His lawyer says he has nearly 50 other clients who will formally sue AstraZeneca in the coming months
17 August 2023: IT engineer Jamie Scott, who suffered a brain haemorrhage the day after his first AstraZeneca jab starts a legal case against the company. The law firm representing Mr Scott says it represents around 40 other individuals or bereaved families
Mr Imanuelsen, who boasts 600,000 followers on X/Twitter as ‘Peter Sweden’, then added the raise your hand emoji.
In 2017, Mr Imanuelsen was accused of denying the Holocaust in social media posts. One allegedly claimed ‘Hitler had some good points’. At the time he claimed these screengrabs were fabricated.
Mr Imanuelsen’s thoughts were echoed by other social media users, including one account with over 9,000 followers who said: ‘Why has the AstraZeneca vaccine been withdrawn but the Pfizer vaccine hasn’t?
‘According to the EU three times more people have died following the Pfizer than the AZ.’
Figures released by the European Medicines Agency in 2023 show more than 11,000 people are thought to have died after receiving a Covid vaccine.
Of these, around 8,000 were attributed to a Pfizer jab and 1,500 AstraZeneca.
Yet not all of these deaths are proven. Only a fraction are thought to have actually been caused by the vaccine.
As of May 6, however, 664.64million doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s jabs have been administered in the EU since late 2020.
AstraZeneca doses, in comparison, stand at 67.18million.
Other tweets questioned the effectiveness of mRNA jabs, with one by user @MarwanNawaz claiming the EU had thrown ‘a bone to quieten the barking dogs by removing its approval of the non-mRNA AstraZeneca vaccine’.
They added: ‘Two gene editing mRNA vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines retain approval.’
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is a genetic blueprint that instructs cells to manufacture proteins in the body.
For Covid, the mRNA vaccine instructs cells to make the spike protein found on the surface of the virus itself. It does not ‘gene edit’, unlike other therapies designed to disable genes.
These harmless proteins ‘train’ the immune system to recognise the virus and then to make cells that fight it if someone later gets infected with the real thing.
As well as reenergizing anti-vaxxers, AstraZeneca’s vaccine withdrawal saw its shares hit a record high.
The firm’s share prices were up more than 1.4 per cent to £122.84 this afternoon after its announcement, adding around £2.5billion to its market valuation.
AstraZeneca’s shares have almost doubled in value since March 2020, when Covid lockdowns brought the world’s economy to a standstill.
AstraZeneca saw a slowdown in growth last year as Covid medicines sales declined, with it focusing instead on respiratory syncytial virus vaccines and obesity drug deals.
Blockbuster sales of its cancer drugs, also saw it claim double-digit growth in the first three months of 2024.
The company insisted today that the jab, known as Vaxzevria, was being removed voluntarily from the EU for commercial reasons, given demand had shifted to the newer updated vaccines.
Similar applications to withdraw the jab will be made in other countries which had previously approved it, including the UK.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are incredibly proud of the role Vaxzevria played in ending the global pandemic.
‘According to independent estimates, over 6.5million lives were saved in the first year of use alone, and over three billion doses were supplied globally.
‘Our efforts have been recognised by governments around the world, and are widely regarded as being a critical component of ending the global pandemic.
‘As multiple, variant Covid 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. AstraZeneca has therefore taken the decision to initiate withdrawal of the marketing authorisations for Vaxzevria within Europe.
‘We will now work with regulators and our partners to align on a clear path forward to conclude this chapter and significant contribution to the Covid pandemic.’
The withdrawal comes just months after it admitted in legal documents that its jab can cause the thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) reaction. It is also called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).
Fifty-one families are currently pursuing legal action against AstraZeneca, arguing its ‘defective’ jab was to blame for their injuries and deaths of loved ones.
The company insisted today that the jab, known as Vaxzevria, was being removed voluntarily from the EU for commercial reasons, given demand had shifted to the newer updated vaccines. Similar applications to withdraw the jab will be made in other countries which had previously approved it, including the UK
If successful, lawyers say compensation could amount to upwards of £250million.
Yet under a legal indemnity ministers gave the company early in the pandemic, amid the race to get out of lockdown, it will be the British taxpayer that foots any legal bill.
Latest figures also show 168 Brits have now received state-funded financial support from the UK’s Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.
The scheme, set-up in the 70s, is a one-off payment, and people who get it are still entitled to take legal action against a vaccine manufacturer if they choose.
According to figures released by NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) under freedom of information laws, fewer than five of the VDPS claims were Pfizer and Moderna. AstraZeneca made up the rest.
The successful claims cover those affected by VITT. Others developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, anaphylaxis or suffered other blood clots.
More than 4,800 claims have been rejected.
Experts today insisted AstraZeneca’s vaccine, credited with saving 6million lives, was still safe.
Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: ‘It has been an excellent and vital vaccine, a key part of the pandemic response for most countries around the world.
He added: ‘The key reason for the withdrawal is likely to be that other Covid vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, are essentially better products.
‘AstraZeneca is very good, but the mRNA products — and probably Novavax too — are better.
‘They have higher effectiveness and the mRNA platforms are more easily adapted towards the latest Covid variants. Thus, they form a key part of most countries’ longer-term strategies.
The graph shows the cumulative number of Covid jabs dished out in the UK since the pandemic began, the percentage of each age group which has had a jab (bottom left) and the number of each Covid vaccine brand dished out
Researchers believe the rare side effect occurs due to the modified cold virus lurking in the jab having an adverse effect on platelets in the blood, triggering clotting
The AstraZeneca vaccine is a genetically engineered common cold virus that used to infect chimpanzees. It has been modified to make it weak so it does not cause illness in people and loaded up with the gene for the coronavirus spike protein, which Covid-19 uses to invade human cells
‘With that, orders for the AstraZeneca vaccine are probably much lower now than they were in previous years, so it’s not worth a longer-term investment on the part of the manufacturers.’
Meanwhile, Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Government’s vaccine advisory panel, at the University of Bristol, told the BBC the AstraZeneca was ‘was what lifted us out of the catastrophe that was unfolding at the time’ in combination with the Pfizer jab.
It comes as Pfizer this week revealed it had paused its own trial of a drug for a rare muscle-wasting disease after a child died suddenly.
The boy, who was between two and four years old, suffered cardiac arrest after receiving the one-off gene therapy last year.
Pfizer has not determined exactly what happened or whether the death was caused by the treatment, called fordadistrogene movaparvovec.
The New York pharma giant said the pause would allow it to investigate the death ‘while protecting the safety of the participants, which is our top priority.’
Read more