AstraZeneca ‘s Covid-19 vaccine may continue to be used while investigations of blood clotting cases have prompted some European countries to suspend use of the vaccine, in accordance with the European Medicines Agency (EMA)
According to the EMA, there are only 30 cases of “venous thromboembolism” out of the 5 million vaccinated people in Europe to date. “The benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks it poses,” the EMA said in a statement.
According to The Guardian, some European countries either either halted the AstraZeneca vaccination as a precaution or banned the use of a specific batch of vaccine after Europe noted that some people had blood clots following the injection.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland announced the suspension of all AstraZeneca vaccinations to investigate cases of blood clots following vaccination. Meanwhile, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg and Lithuania also banned vaccination batches of one million doses that were sent to 17 countries.
“The vaccine may continue to be used while investigation of coagulation is underway. There is currently no indication that the vaccination is causing this. This complication is also not listed as a side effect of a vaccine, ” the EMA said.
AstraZeneca, the vaccine development company with Oxford University, said, the safety of the vaccine has been studied in human trials and the data shows that the vaccine is well tolerated by the human body. AstraZeneca also added that its vaccines are under strict quality control and “no serious vaccine-related side effects have been reported.”
Phil Bryan, head of the UK’s MHRA pharmaceutical regulator, said there was no evidence that post-injection coagulation was caused by the vaccine.
Denmark’s National Health Service said it halted its AstraZeneca vaccination for two weeks because a 60-year-old woman, after having received the same batch of vaccine used in Austria, had a blood clot and subsequently dead.
According to Reuters, Austria stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine batch on March 8 after a 49-year-old nurse died of “severe clotting problems”, days after being vaccinated.