Yes your original reply was, but this specific childthread is talking about Denmark and how stopping the AZ vaccine pushes back their estimates by two weeks. This will likely cause preventable death in Denmark but those numbers are not in the thousands.

AZ is not suspended in all of Europe. Most countries continue to use it, some of them -- France and Germany among then -- limiting the vaccine to people beyond a certain age (France: 55, Germany: 60), who are at a greater risk from Covid and who are also the next large group to be vaccinated.

> limiting the vaccine to people beyond a certain age (France: 55

Wait - I thought France said AztraZeneca wasn't effective for people over 65? Are they just giving it to people 55-65 therefore? And shouldn't those people have already been vaccinated by now anyway?

Presumably you're being intentionally obtuse, but whatever. France (and Germany) initially said the recommendation for those groups was pending additional data on efficacy in those age groups, which was lacking in the phase 3 trials. This data has since been submitted and the recommendation extended to elderly people.

> initially said the recommendation for those groups was pending additional data on efficacy in those age groups

Hang on that’s not not actually what the French said is it? They actually said there was data and that the data said it was ineffective.

"Last month France approved use of the vaccine for under-65s only, citing lack of data for older people."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56242617

But if you read more carefully what they specifically said was:

> Everything points to thinking it is quasi-ineffective on people older than 65, some say those 60 years or older.

So they said there was data that said it was ineffective, not that there wasn't enough data.

Apparently Macron said that, though I can find very little beyond that one quote. I doubt that's what the vaccination boards (whatever their equivalent of the EMA is) in France said when they recommended limiting vaccination to under <threshold age>, but I haven't really looked it up. The German Stiko was quite clear on it, anyway.

Edit to add: ... and while Stiko, ie. the vaccination board, was quite clear on it, I'm sure there were like two dozen high ranking politicians in Germany in January who either didn't read or were unable to understand the Stiko recommendation and claimed that AZ is known to be ineffective. Most politicians aren't trained scientists, and unfortunately it shows.