WARSAW, Poland -- Countries across Europe resumed shots with the AstraZeneca vaccine Friday, as leaders sought to reassure their populations it is safe after brief suspensions that cast doubt on a vaccine that is critical to ending the coronavirus pandemic.
The British and French prime ministers rolled up their sleeves, as did a handful of other senior politicians across the continent where inoculation drives have repeatedly stumbled and several countries are now reimposing lockdowns as infections rise in many places.
Britain is a notable exception: The outbreak there has receded, and the country has been widely praised for its vaccination campaign, though this week it announced that it, too, would be hit by supply shortages. The U.K. also never stopped using AstraZeneca. European Union countries, by contrast, have struggled to quickly roll out vaccines, and the pause of the vaccine by many this week only added to those troubles.
The suspensions came after reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine, even though international health agencies urged governments to press ahead with the shot, saying the benefits outweighed the risks. On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said the vaccine doesn't increase the overall incidence of blood clots, though it could not rule out a link to a small number of rare clots.
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The move paved the way for a slew of European countries including Italy, France and Germany to begin using the vaccine again.
"It's clear that the revocation of the suspension is for us a great relief because we have to strongly accelerate the vaccination campaign," said Dr. Giovanni Rezza, the head of prevention at the Italian Health Ministry.
Health experts have expressed concern that even though the suspensions were brief, they could still damage confidence in the vaccine at a time when many people are already hesitant to take a shot that was developed so quickly. While many EU countries have struggled with such reluctance, it's even more of a worry in developing nations that may not have any other choice of vaccine. AstraZeneca, which is cheaper and easier to store than many rival products, is the linchpin in vaccination drives in many poorer countries.
With little other choice, most developing countries that had the AstraZeneca on hand pushed ahead with it.
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But while governments in Africa and elsewhere expressed their determination to continue using the shot, not everyone is convinced.
"Why should I allow it to be used on me? Are we not human beings like those in Europe?" Peter Odongo, a resident of a town in northern Uganda, told the Daily Monitor newspaper this week.
The East African country has received 864,000 AstraZeneca doses via Covax so far but had administered fewer than 3,000 by Tuesday. Authorities blamed logistical challenges in transporting the vaccines deep into the country, but newspaper reports cite resistance to the vaccine.
Even before the latest debate over AstraZeneca, vaccine skepticism had been a concern across the world, as many people are hesitant about shots developed in record time. African countries have faced particular hurdles on a continent wary of being a testing ground for the West.
"Unfortunate events" in Europe will "clearly not be helpful for our public confidence, in building public confidence and trust on the use of that particular vaccine and other vaccines for sure," John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Thursday, as he encouraged African countries to continue their vaccinations.
That came hours before the European Union drug regulator gave the same message to its 27 members.
Even before those messages, several developing nations had said they would stick by the shot.
"We will continue the inoculations," said Lia Tadesse, health minister of Ethiopia, which received 2.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last week.
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Authorities in India -- home to the vaccine manufacturer that will likely make a large portion of the doses destined for the developing world -- said Wednesday that they would continue AstraZeneca inoculations with "full vigor" as infections jumped in several parts of the country. After initially saying it would delay use of the vaccine, Thailand said Tuesday that it would carry on with AstraZeneca, and the prime minister even got his shot in public.
Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion, hopes to vaccinate 60% of its people by the end of 2022. That target almost certainly will not be met without widespread use of AstraZeneca. And experts have warned that until vaccinations rates are high the world over, the virus remains a threat everywhere.
Information for this article was contributed by Rodney Muhumuza, David Biller, Ignatius Ssuuna, Ashok Sharma, Mohamed Sheikh Nor, Lori Hinnant and Maria Cheng of The Associated Press.