EU chief Ursula von der Leyen today threatened to cut off exports of Covid-19 jabs to Britain and other vaccine-producing countries unless doses start flowing across to mainland Europe. In an extraordinary intervention, she said that the European Commission was prepared to use whatever “tool” necessary to ensure what it regards as fair access to supplies. With the EU under fire over its slow roll-out of vaccines, commission president Ms von der Leyen stressed 41 million doses had been exported in six weeks from the European bloc to 33 countries, which includes millions of Pfizer jabs from Belgium to the UK. She also told how the EU expects to get tens of millions of doses less of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab than she said it had ordered. She added: “Open roads run in both directions. “This is why we need to ensure that there is reciprocity and proportionality. “I want to be clear on reciprocity. If the situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness. “So we are exporting a lot to countries that are themselves producing vaccines and we think this is an invitation to be open so that we also see exports from those countries coming back to the European Union. “The second point that is of importance for us - we will reflect on whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates than us are still proportionate. “In other words, we want reliable deliveries of vaccines, we want to increase in the contracts, we want to see reciprocity and proportionality in exports and we are ready to use whatever tool we need to deliver on that. “This is about making sure that Europe gets its fair share.” Evening Standard
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The European Union's medicines agency has said there is "no indication" that Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine is the cause of reported blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has been carrying out a case-by-case evaluation of incidents and was expected to complete its review on Thursday, said executive director Emer Cooke.
The review began after a report from the Norwegian Medicines Agency revealed blood clotting events in four adults who had the Covid-19 jab.
But on Tuesday, the EMA said it was "firmly convinced" the vaccine's benefits outweighed the risk of side effects.
Ms Coke said: "I want to also stress that at present, there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions (blood clots).
"They had not come up in the clinical trials, and they are not listed as known or expected side events with this vaccine."
She said that in clinical trials, both the vaccinated people and the people who received the placebo had in fact shown some very small numbers of blood clot developments - indicating that it was nothing to do with the vaccine.
She added: "The number of thromboembolic events in the vaccinated people, overall, seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population."
And in a statement, a University of Oxford spokesperson agreed.
It read: "Both the MHRA and EMA have said the vaccine's benefits continue to outweigh any potential risks, and the vaccine can continue to be administered while investigation of cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing, a stance also supported by the WHO.
"What we know for certain at present from real-world data is there is a clear impact of the vaccine on public health - with far fewer cases, hospitalisations, and deaths from coronavirus in those who have been vaccinated. "
The World Health Organization (WHO) had earlier added its weight behind the debate, urging countries to continue using the jab. And UK leaders and medical professionals joined in their defence of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after some European countries - including Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Sweden - paused its use due to concerns over clotting.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was "no reason at all" to stop the vaccine's rollout and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would accept her jab "without hesitation" when called on.
Now, France has said it expects inoculations there to resume after the agency meets and issues its recommendations.
The EU medical regulator insists the vaccine's benefits outweigh the risk of side effects
Nicola Magrini, the director general of Italy's medicines authority AIFA, told its daily newspaper La Repubblica he believed the choice to suspend the AstraZeneca shot was "political".
He said it was safe and its benefit-to-risk ratio was "widely positive".
The EMA has said "many thousands of people" develop blood clots every year in the EU and "the number of thromboembolic events overall in vaccinated people seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population".
In the EU's largest member states - including Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain - AstraZeneca has accounted for about 13-15% of shots administered since the rollout started almost three months ago.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine makes up the majority, according to official bloc data.
Sky News science correspondent Thomas Moore said that out of the five million people who have had the vaccine across the continent, there have been 30 reports of blood clots.
He added: "In a population of that size, you'd expect one in 1,000 or around 100 a week developing a blood clot, even without vaccination."
Both the WHO and the EMA are meeting separately on Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Nurse Maggie Clark prepares to administer a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at a vaccination centre set up at the Fiveways Islamic Centre and Mosque in Nottingham, central England, on February 22, 2021. - Coronavirus vaccines do not contain pork or make you infertile: a celebrity advertising pitch is striving to counter a worrying lag among certain ethnic minorities affecting Britain's otherwise impressive inoculation campaign.
The EMA has been working closely with AstraZeneca, experts in blood disorders, and authorities including the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and will report those findings in preparation for an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to consider any further action that may be needed.
Mr Johnson described the MRHA as "one of toughest and most experienced regulators in the world".
"They see no reason at all to discontinue the vaccination programme... for either of the vaccines (the other being Pfizer) that we're currently using," he said.
And Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO's chief scientist, told a media briefing "we do not want people to panic", as she said no association has been found so far between blood clots and COVID-19 vaccines.
She said the rates at which blood clots have occurred in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine "are in fact less than what you would expect in the general population".
Clinical epidemiologist Dr Deepti Gurdasani said she believed the European countries' decision to pause the AstraZeneca rollout was out of "an abundance of caution".
Dr Gurdasani told Sky News there is no evidence so far of a link, but that because public confidence has "taken a hit" it is "important" the concerns are investigated "thoroughly but quickly".
However, she added that even if the vaccine is found to cause a small number of incidents, people should still take the jab.
"The benefit of taking the vaccine far outweighs the risk, even if these events were linked to the vaccine - which we don't know that they are at the moment," she said.
"The risk of dying from COVID and the vulnerability of the age groups currently taking the vaccine is very high."
People need confidence going for a vaccine and the news that more countries are halting the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab won't instil that.
The vaccine has had a troubled start in the EU with delays to orders and Germany and France initially deciding not to give it to the elderly. That made many ask why, and in both countries I found many pursuing for the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine instead. Even many health professionals rejected the AstraZeneca jab because of some evidence of side effects.
So reports of blood clots in some people who received the vaccine will have created huge alarm. Not just in the EU but in the UK where the jabs are still being given to people. How many of us have thought in recent days we'd prefer to have an alternative vaccine?
But the regulators on both sides of the channel insist there is no cause for concern. There is no evidence of a causal link between the blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine. And the number of blood clots reported are tiny compared to the millions of jabs administered.
Still, governments deal with politics and public confidence and need to reassure their populations they are doing everything they can to ensure safety.
President Macron of France said the rollout would be suspended until the European Medicines Agency carries out a review which starts today. But his vaccines' minister has said he believes the suspension will only be temporary suggesting a confidence in what the regulator has said.
No leader will want the legacy of delivering a vaccine which isn't safe. But the evidence for now is that the AstraZeneca one is. Reviews by the European Medicines Agency and the World Health organisation-which has already said there is no evidence the blood clots were linked to the vaccination-will hopefully give more clarity. And confidence.
Without it, the EU is in trouble. It was relying heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine to accelerate what was a sluggish start to its rollout. The European Commission announced today a major boost of its Pfizer-Biontech supply. But with millions still waiting for jabs, the union needs every vaccine it can get its hands on.
Sky News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ransom-seeking hackers have begun taking advantage of a recently disclosed flaw in Microsoft's widely used mail server software, a researcher said late Wednesday - a serious escalation that could portend widespread digital disruption.
The disclosure, made on Twitter by Microsoft Corp security program manager Phillip Misner, is the realization of worries that have been coursing through the security community for days.
Since March 2, when Microsoft announced the discovery of serious vulnerabilities in its Exchange software, experts have warned that it was only a matter of time before ransomware gangs began using them to shake down organizations across the internet.
Misner didn't immediately respond to follow-up messages and Microsoft did not return emails seeking comment. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation also didn't immediately respond.
Even though the security holes announced by Microsoft have since been fixed, organizations worldwide have failed to patch their software, leaving them open to exploitation. In Germany alone, officials have said that up to 60,000 networks remained vulnerable.
The fixes are free, but experts attribute the sluggish pace of many customers' updates in part to the complexity of Exchange's architecture.
All manner of hackers have begun taking advantage of the holes - one security firm recently counted 10 separate hacking groups using the flaws - but ransomware operators are among the most feared.
Those groups work by locking users out of their devices and data unless the victims cough up big chunks of digital currency. They now potentially have access "into a huge number of vulnerable systems," said Brett Callow of Canadian cybersecurity company Emsisoft.
He said more modest companies - many of whom lack the ability or awareness to update their software - could be particularly affected by the latest variant of ransomware.
"This is a potentially serious risk to small businesses," he said.
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