Speaking on French radio on Tuesday morning, Clément Beaune, Secretary for European Affairs in the French government, explained that the Paris decision to suspend the AstraZeneca treatment had been taken following advice from Germany.
The German health authorities warned that they had observed a number of cases of serious side-effects.
But Clément Beaune denied that there was "a coordinated effort" against any particular treatment. "That claim," Beaune insisted, "is excessive".
'Politically motivated error'
Speaking in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, Nicola Magrini, the director-general of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), says he believes the suspension of vaccination with a key treatment in three major European countries is a politically motivated error.
#ottoemezzo Nicola Magrini (Direttore generale Aifa): "Noi andiamo nel panico se ci manca un vaccino che copre il 20% della nostra fornitura mentre in altre parti del mondo non ne hanno nemmeno uno" https://t.co/pNHOVbOBAO
— La7 (@La7tv) March 15, 2021
"We have arrived at this suspension because several European nations, notably Germany and France, have decided to suspend vaccination . . . they want to take a pause and do some checking. That's a political choice."
But Magrini insists that the AstraZeneca injection is safe.
There have been eight deaths and four cases of severe side-effects among those treated with the AstraZeneca product in Italy.
The health authority director says his organisation will take three or four days to collect all the necessary data, and "once the doubt has been lifted, we will be able to continue to vaccinate, even faster than before."
France did not 'rush to approve' AZ shot
Meanwhile, Alain Fischer, the president of the French council on vaccination strategy, has insisted that there was no careless rush to validate the AstraZeneca treatment.
"You cannot claim that we went too fast" in issuing an approval, he said on Tuesday morning. "The vaccine has proved its efficiency."
But Fischer agrees with the decision to suspend. The "small number of unusual side-effects, mostly in other countries than France," justify an increased level of caution.
A handful of "troubling" cases of blood clots justify the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the French government's top vaccination advisor said Tuesday, adding that he hoped all doubts would soon be removed about its safety.
Fischer said a higher number than normal of cases of pulmonary embolism -- blood clots in the lungs -- had caused alarm at the weekend.
"We are in a situation where there is a rational scientific doubt," Fischer said.
"I hope that this doubt will be lifted by colleagues who are working on this issue ... afterwards, obviously we will need to resume our work of teaching and explaining, which will not be easy, I'm aware of that."
Perceptions that the AstraZeneca vaccine is less effective than rivals from Pfizer and Moderna and has more signficant side-effects, such as mild flu symptoms, means that uptake of the jab had already been slow in France.
The health ministry revealed at the beginning of March that three-quarters of the doses delivered by AstraZeneca had gone unused.
Global and European health experts to issue findings
WHO safety experts are to meet on Tuesday to consider the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. The global organisation has already declared the treatment safe, saying there is no link between the vaccine and reported blood clots.
"We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca," WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Monday.
Benefits of the #AstraZenaca vaccine outweigh the risks. For now. Investigations continue. https://t.co/WvAnN7y4Df
— Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) March 15, 2021
"So far, we do not find an association between these events and the vaccine."
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is expected to publish additional information on the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday.
