Maltese Doctor Accuses EU Of ‘Anti-AstraZeneca Agenda’, Despite EU’s Approval Of Vaccine
An outspoken Maltese doctor and former politician has accused the European Union of a bias against the UK-made COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca.
“The political agenda to belittle a scientific achievement by a country which has just left the EU, where the rest of the EU failed to do so is obvious,” Anthony Buttigieg said in a Facebook post.
The European Medical Agency had approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use of all people over the age of 18 in February. However, several European member states, including Malta, decided save the doses for people under 55 over concern of a lack of studies at that point.
“The EU said the AstraZeneca vaccine was only 60% effective. Large scale studies in the real world after millions of doses in the UK show it not only as effective as the Pfizer vaccine, the immune response after one dose lasts much longer,” Buttigieg claimed.
“Now it’s saying the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots when in reality the patients who were administered the first dose probably already had COVID-19, which indeed does cause blood clots, one of its worse complications.”
The EMA however, has said that there is no link between blood clots and the UK vaccine.
“Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson stand to lose billions if the AstraZeneca vaccine is widely accepted. Do not think they are not above ‘influencing’ European politicians to sow doubt regarding its efficacy and safety,” the doctor warned.
Buttigieg said that unlike other vaccines, the AstraZeneca vaccine, created by UK scientists, can be stored in normal fridges and is much cheaper and easier to distribute.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine IS safe. If you are offered it, take it.”
Malta is one of 17 countries to receive a batch of the UK vaccine currently under investigation for a potential quality defect.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Austria have suspended the batch while Denmark has completely halted all AstraZeneca vaccines after some patients developed blood clots following their inoculation. Malta is not planning on suspended deliveries.
The remaining countries include Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Iceland, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden, none of which have suspended the delivery of the vaccine.
EU Commission rebuts Anthony Buttigieg’s claims
Following the publication of this article, the European Commission’s representation in Malta rebutted Buttigieg’s claims that the EU has some kind of political agenda to discredit the AstraZeneca vaccine, just because it was researched and produced in a former member state.
“It’s in total contradiction of the efforts which indeed the EU is making to ensure that AstraZeneca honours its full contractual obligations and supply the stipulated doses it had promised to 27 Member States,” this spokesperson said.
“So much so that the EU has had to introduce a mechanism whereby member states need to grant permission for the export of any vaccine doses outside the EU, including of AstraZeneca.”
Earlier this month, Italy became the first member state to use this mechanism when it blocked the shipment of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia.
“Dr. Buttigieg should have better checked facts concerning the negative statements which he alleges ‘the EU’ is making against the AZ vaccine, rather than purposely misinforming readers and spreading alarm amongst those who have received or might still receive the AZ vaccine,” the spokesperson said.
“First of all he seems to confuse ‘the EU’ with individual Member States – as everyone knows, the EU is made up of 27 sovereign states. Furthermore, to date, the EU has no competence over health matters. Therefore, whilst the European Commission guided a process which allowed equal access to all member states to vaccines as they are produced (and hence why Malta was one of the first countries in the world to start receiving them), the European Medicines Authority (an EU Agency) was tasked with issuing its approval as ‘safe for use’ with regards to the vaccines as they came on the market.”
“The opinion of the EMA however is not binding on member states – in fact we have seen several cases where member states have indeed opted to purchase and use the Russian and Chinese vaccines in their territories, without these having received EMA approval.”
“Likewise, any member state may still decide not to buy and use any vaccine on its territory, despite the approval given by the EMA. In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the EMA never put any age limits on its use, but it was individual member states who decided to do so given that, according to the producers of the vaccine themselves, it has a lower success rate than other vaccines on the market.”
“I would finally concur with Dr. Buttigieg on his last point and urge anyone who is offered the AstraZeneca vaccine to take it without any hesitation or concern, because according to European authorities it is as good a vaccine as any other on the market, and there is no proof of any link between any unfortunate cases there have been and the AstraZeneca vaccine so far.”
This article has been amended to fact-check certain claims.
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