Vaccine Astrazeneca? I would not have suspended it. Speak Pani (former dg Aifa)
On the case of the Astrazen vaccine, the opinion of Luca Pani, former director general of Aifa, interviewed by Giulio Gambino for Tpi
Luca Pani, 60, from Cagliari, is the former general director of Aifa (2011-2016), lives in the USA and teaches psychiatry at the University of Miami.
Professor, was Aifa right to suspend the Astrazeneca vaccine as a precaution?
It depends on how we understand the concept of precaution. I fear that suspension worsens people's psychological aspects. Wouldn't it have been precautionary to consider the impact on people as well? This is my concept.
Aifa changed its position in a few days. Who knows that world well, do you think they have done the best?
True, I know that world well. In the case of AstraZeneca, I know it's not popular to say this, but I would have done a closed-door analysis actually.
That is?
I would have analyzed the data without going out yet.
In Europe, out of a total of 17 million subjects vaccinated with AstraZeneca, there were 37 cases of people who encountered problems, then there were also some deaths, but the correlation is still to be demonstrated …
The correlation has to be demonstrated. So I would have asked the British for more information, who are the most experienced in the world, because they have administered about 26 million doses. They could have given us the numbers of side effects right away, because they have a scary drug surveillance network.
So the British could have given some details that we don't have to understand exactly what the conditions were?
Sure.
And who should have asked for this information?
EMA could have done it since the vaccine is in a centralized procedure, any agency could have done it. They are agencies between which there are exchanges of information.
And the Aifa?
Yes, even Aifa could have. I would have trusted Ema a lot and also the English. We have to be honest about this. I would have made a nice urgent note to Dr. June Raine of the MHRA and asked her what signs they saw on their vaccines.
Do you think it is possible that neither the Italian drug agency, nor the German, Spanish, French and Netherlands agencies made this call to Dr. Raine?
I believe that everything is possible, unfortunately it is one of the things that this profession taught me. Maybe because of Brexit, I don't know.
Is it right that Aifa announces the suspension? Or should it have been the EMA?
The answer is very simple. You can do two things, but not both at the same time. Aifa may, for reasons of urgency and emergency and for a critical situation at national level, override the European Agency and suspend the administration for the moment. Or, alternatively, defer to the EMA, as you are responsible for the centralized procedure. So Aifa would have had to wait for the review of the EMA and then act. Instead it was not like that.
Extract of an interview published on Tpi, here the full version.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/vaccino-astrazeneca-io-non-lavrei-sospeso-parla-pani-ex-dg-aifa/ on Wed, 17 Mar 2021 08:18:11 +0000.