Dramatic moment Danish vaccine chief FAINTS during a Covid conference announcing the permanent ban of AstraZeneca jab

A DANISH vaccine chief dramatically fainted during a major Covid conference to announce the country’s permanent ban of the AstraZeneca jab.

Tanja Erichsen, head of Denmark’s medicines agency, sparked panic when she fell to the ground during the press conference.

The head of Denmark’s medicines agency, Tanja Erichsen, fainted during a major Covid conference

She was attended to on the scene and taken to hospital as a precaution

She was part of a team announcing Denmark’s permanent ban of AstraZeneca jabCredit: Rex
Danish health chief Soeren Brostroem quickly ran to Mrs Erichsen’s aid with the help of officials.

However, it was later announced that she had regained consciousness and had been taken to hospital for a check up.

No explanation was released for why Mrs Erichsen fainted.

KNOCKOUT JAB

The dramatic tumble came as Denmark became the first country to entirely cease administering AstraZeneca’s jab following its possible link to extremely rare cases of blood clots.

The news was announced despite recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and European medicines watchdog to continue using the vaccine, after a review gave just a 0.000095 per cent chance of the rare phenomenon.

The EU’s drug watchdog had said last week that it had found a possible link between the vaccine and very rare blood clot cases, but said the risk of dying from Covid was “much greater” than the risk of mortality from rare side effects.

However, the regulator left it to individual states to make their own risk assessments and decide how to administer the vaccine.

Danish Health agency head Mr Brostrom had argued that the results of investigations into the blood clots “showed real and serious side effects.”

He said: “Based on an overall consideration, we have therefore chosen to continue the vaccination programme for all target groups without this vaccine.”

This is despite reviews finding the risks vanishingly small, with far less danger than many commonplace medicines such as the contraceptive pill and Covid itself.

Last week The Sun’s front page vaccine story outline just how low the risk is with experts calling the clear-minded graphic “brilliant”.

It illustrated the findings of a review that gave just a 0.000095 per cent chance of a blood clot from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Despite this and the pitiful vaccine roll-out in EU countries, Germany has halted the jab for under-60s, while France has made the same move for under-55s.

The front page graph illustrated the findings of a review that gave just a 0.000095 per cent chance of a blood clot from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

In addition, both countries have advised younger adults already given AstraZeneca’s jab that they should get a second dose of Pfizer or Moderna.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said today the EU is turning more heavily to BioNTech/Pfizer to make up for Johnson & Johnson suspending its vaccine doses over blood clot fears.

This development and decision by Denmark to drop AstraZenica is set to worsen the shambolic EU vaccine rollout, which has been slammed by the World Health Organisation for being “unacceptably slow”.

Just 19.4 per cent of the EU’s adult population have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine so far, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s Covid Vaccine tracker.

That is compared to the UK’s roll-out which has more than half of its adult population given their given jab.

Denmark, a country of 5.8 million people, is in the process of reopening schools, restaurants, shopping malls and cultural activities.

This came after the daily infection rate has slowed to 500 to 600 a day from several thousand in December.

Mr Brostrom said last month that Denmark “follows a precautionary principle” with regards to the AstraZeneca vaccine.