Vaccine confusion: Do European leaders have ‘blood on their hands’?

By Dr Upul
Wijayawardhana

No doubt, there are many necessary evils in life! Powerful nations, that try to solve other’s problems by force, say that war is a necessary evil. I am not too sure about that but one thing I am sure is that ‘Pharmaceutical giants’ are a necessary evil. The billions they spend on research lead to new drug discoveries which benefit all and we are bound to have shorter lives without their products. But, again, not all can afford unless there is a subsidised health service. The problem with most of these companies is that they too suffer from extreme greed, a trait they share with all other ventures in the capitalist society we live in. It is unfortunate, they forget that they are in a business that needs a touch of compassion and do their utmost to maximise profits. They use devious means to incentivise doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals to use, sometimes misuse, their products. Many have been caught for unethical practices and it is only strong legislations, more effective in some countries than others, that keep them in check.

The greatest medical challenge of our lifetime, the Covid-19 pandemic, gave the pharmaceutical industry an ideal opportunity to gain respectability. In fact, AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters in Cambridge, led the way. Very early in the epidemic, they announced that the vaccine in development by the research team in Oxford led by Prof Sarah Gilbert, if clinical trials proved successful, would be manufactured and sold by them without profit. If the trials failed, they would have lost millions of Pounds. Perhaps, they expected others to follow but what happened was just the opposite! With the help of some European leaders, who did their utmost to slur the Oxford AZ vaccine, the other two major players in the ‘vaccine game’ Pfizer and Modena are dancing their way to the bank! According to the latest figures, though AstraZeneca has trebled its Covid vaccine sales to $894m in the second quarter of 2021 when compared with the first, Pfizer, the American group has raised its full year forecast for the sales of its vaccine to $33.5bn! This may well be an underestimate as it was reported on 1st August that the EU has agreed to pay $23 instead of $18 for the Pfizer vaccine and $25 instead of $22 for the Moderna jab.

What is of grave concern to us are the rumours circulating in financial circles that AstraZeneca may well stop marketing vaccines altogether and concentrate on other parts of its business, which are very profitable, though the original plan was to continue in the vaccine business, selling at a profit once the epidemic was over. A leading financial analyst has commented: “AstraZeneca might have expected to have earned the world’s gratitude for its not-for-profit stance. Instead, concerns about the vaccine’s safety stubbornly persist, hampering the take-up in parts of the world that should have benefitted the most.”

The confusions about Oxford AZ vaccine persist mainly because of the actions of EU leaders, as well stated by the British journalist Steve Bird, in his post in ‘The Telegraph’ titled “The vindication of AstraZeneca: A vaccine trashed by Macron, politicised by Europe but quietly saving lives across the world” wherein he states “Some are even suggesting European leaders have “blood on their hands” for creating confusion and mixed messages, often about claims or rumours that turned out to be unfounded.”

Steve Bird’s post is interesting reading (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/vindication-astrazeneca-vaccine-trashed-macron-091900030.html) which starts as follows:

“Sitting in the Royal Box on Centre Court on the first day of Wimbledon this summer, Dame Sarah Gilbert appeared a little uncomfortable as tennis fans gave her a standing ovation. Many of the crowd in SW18 that day had themselves received the AstraZeneca vaccine that Professor Gilbert and her team helped to develop. As they rose to their feet applauding, most knew her research at Oxford University in conjunction with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant had helped free the UK from the grip of the Covid lockdown. While the audience recognised the achievements of her and her colleagues, some heads of state have found it politically expedient to be anything but complimentary about the first low-cost and not-for-profit vaccine.”

In January, President Emmanuel Macron stated at a specially convened press conference that the AstraZeneca vaccine was “quasi-ineffective for over-65s”, adding that “it doesn’t work the way we were expecting it to”. A few hours later the EU regulator approved it for all adults!

Ridiculing the UK’s strategy of spacing out the first and second doses, to try to maximise the number of people who have one jab and some degree of immunity, Macron went on to say “The goal is not to have the biggest number of first injections. it is a ‘lie’ to tell people they were vaccinated if they had had the first dose of a vaccine that is made up of two”.

It was exactly a year since the UK had left the European Union, and Macron may well have been displaying his jealousy towards Britain’s vaccine programme. Perhaps, he may have had a more sinister motive, as Angela Merkel too joined later criticising and limiting the use of the Oxford AZ vaccine. Interestingly, she took the first dose of the same vaccine later! However, for the second dose she took the Moderna vaccine though there was no scientific basis for such an action. Perhaps, she wanted to impress that Oxford AZ vaccine is inferior to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and took Moderna as second dose, as she did not want to make it too obvious that she was promoting the Pfizer vaccine, developed by a German Biotech company! There are many who sing hosannas to Merkel but the question arises whether she and Macron are doing a great disservice to the many poor nations in the world.

Whilst restricting use, EU banned the export of Oxford AZ vaccine and introduced a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland to ensure this, an action which took the Prime Ministers of the UK and Ireland by surprise! Even today, British citizens who have had successful vaccinations with the Oxford AZ vaccine, manufactured in India, are not allowed entry to EU. I did not care to check whether the jabs I received were made in India as I do not wish to visit the EU, as long as it persists with such pig-headed notions. Afterall, Serum Institute of India is one of the largest manufacturers of vaccines in the world!

EU leaders harped on blood clots as a complication of AZ vaccine but new research has shown this was an exaggeration. A team of researchers from Spain, the UK and the Netherlands compared data from more than 1.3million people and concluded that those who had the AZ jab developed blood clots at the same rate as those who had the far more expensive Pfizer jab. More importantly, they found people who had Covid-19 developed blood clots at a far higher rate than those who received neither vaccine.

By the actions of the EU led by Merkel and Macron, by ‘politicisation’ of a low-cost, easily stored vaccine, it would be the poor countries that would suffer if the rumours circulating prove to be correct. It was announced recently that a billion doses of the Oxford AZ vaccine had been sent to 170 countries. Most developing countries would be bankrupt if they are forced to pay for significantly more expensive vaccines.

Prof. Gilbert’s team is already at work, among others, developing vaccines to combat variants and if they become prohibitively expensive, the only option left to poor countries would be to let the disease spread till herd immunity develops, sacrificing millions of lives in the process.

Let us hope AstraZeneka remains undeterred by the unfair treatment meted out by some misguided politicians and extend its noble gesture.