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HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINES-BRITAIN-ASTRAZENECA
AstraZeneca jab not linked to clotting: co-developer
LONDON, March 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group
on Monday said there was no link between the jab it developed with
AstraZeneca and blood clotting, after several countries suspended its use.
Andrew Pollard said there was “very reassuring evidence that there is no
increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the UK, where most of the doses
in Europe been given so far”.
“It’s absolutely critical that we don’t have a problem of not vaccinating
people and have the balance of a huge risk, a known risk of Covid, against
what appears so far from the data that we’ve got from the regulators — no
signal of a problem,” he told BBC radio.
Ireland and the Netherlands on Sunday became the latest countries to
suspend their use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine out of precaution.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland have also paused their rollout of the jab.
AstraZeneca said on Sunday there was no evidence of increased blood clots
from the jab after outcomes from 17 million doses were analysed.
The pharmaceutical company said the 15 incidences of deep vein thrombosis
(DVT) and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the
vaccine was “much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a
general population”.
“The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual
cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of
licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety,”
chief medical officer Ann Taylor said.
“In terms of quality, there are also no confirmed issues related to any
batch of our vaccine used across Europe, or the rest of the world.”
The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have both
said there is no evidence the use of the jab should be suspended.
Ireland said it had “temporarily deferred” use of the vaccine on the
advice of its advisory panel following the move by Norway.
The Dutch health ministry also said it was suspending the rollout as a
precaution.
BSS/AFP/RY/1605hrs