‘Possible link’ to blood clots but AstraZeneca benefits outweigh risks, EU regulator says

IslamNews – The EU’s medicines regulator says unusual blood clots should be listed as a very rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19.

After a study looking at 86 such cases in the EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risk.

There was no definite causal link, and although most cases were in women under 60, they also occurred in men.

The EU has vaccinated more than 20 million people.

Separately, the UK’s vaccine advisory body said that under-30s there were to be offered an alternative jab to AstraZeneca due to the blood clots issue. Some 79 people had suffered rare blood clots after vaccination by the end of March in the UK – 19 of whom had died.

And the World Health Organisation’s advisory vaccine safety panel said on Wednesday that although a blood clot link was “plausible” it was “not confirmed” and the cases were “very rare” among 200 million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca globally.

More than 132 million Covid-19 infections have been recorded across the world, along with more than 2.8 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University research.

Source: BBC