Covid-19: Slovenia suspends use of Janssen vaccine after death

Slovenia suspended as a precaution, Wednesday, September 29, the use of the Janssen vaccine against Covid-19, produced by the American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, after the death of a 20-year-old woman.

“We are temporarily stopping until all the details related to this case are clarified”Minister of Health Janez Poklukar in Ljubljana, the capital, told the press. According to Bojana Beovic, who heads the group of experts advising the government, “There could be an unwanted link between death and vaccination”.

Earlier, Slovenian media reported on the case of a 20-year-old woman hospitalized in serious condition on Monday, just days after receiving a dose of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine. She succumbed to a brain hemorrhage and blood clots overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Demonstration in Ljubljana

A death has already been linked in the past to this vaccine in Slovenia, where compulsory vaccination will enter into force in the civil service on Friday 1^er October, pushing more and more people to get vaccinated. With 47% of the population vaccinated, this country of two million inhabitants has a protection rate that is even lower than the European Union average (64%).

Wednesday evening, demonstrators, including the father of the girl according to media, gathered in the capital by the thousands to denounce the current health policy. They then blocked a road axis and the police used tear gas to disperse them.

By mid-September, the Slovenian police had already dispersed with water cannon and tear gas thousands of demonstrators protesting in Ljubljana for the same reasons.