Delay of AstraZeneca vaccine forces Dutch experts to rethink the vaccination plan

The Netherlands will receive fewer vaccines from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in the first quarter. This was announced on Friday. There will be a cut of 920,000 doses of the vaccine that AstraZeneca developed with the University of Oxford. This is due to production issues, which forced the company to scale back deliveries to the EU by 60 percent. 

“It is a major setback. However, we are going to arrange this. We have to redo the vaccination puzzle,” says Ben van der Zeijst, emeritus professor of vaccines, in an interview with NOS. 

The reduction of vaccinations will probably lead to a delay for some groups, thinks Van der Zeijst. More than half of the first-quarter vaccinations were planned to be delivered by AstraZeneca. Van der Zeijst does see opportunities “to adjust to it in one or more ways.” For example, by postponing the second injection of the AstraZeneca jab. 

On Friday, the European Medicines Agency EMA will likely approve the vaccine for use in the EU.