Forget herd immunity. In Europe this week it appeared “herd mentality” was the dominating force in the battle against COVID-19.
On Monday, Germany raised a red flag, temporarily suspending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine so that it could investigate possible links to blood clots after seven cases of thrombosis occurred in the 1.6 million patients inoculated with that vaccine in Germany; three cases proved fatal. In response, another dozen European countries marched behind Berlin, dropping that vaccine to further investigate and effectively halting already anemic COVID immunization programs.
To date, less than 5 percent of citizens in Europe have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, compared to 13 percent in the U.S.