Health regulators in Europe and Asia have halted the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after 37 recipients experienced life-threatening issues and, in two cases, fatal blood clotting. Germany became the latest country to suspend vaccinations out of “precaution” on Monday.
There have been 15 reports of clots in the legs, called deep vein thrombosis, and 22 cases of blood clots that reached the lungs, known as a pulmonary embolism. About a dozen countries, such as Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Iceland, Latvia, and Ireland, have paused the rollout of the vaccine in response.
MULTIPLE EU COUNTRIES PAUSE DOSES OF ASTRAZENECA VACCINE AFTER WIDESPREAD REPORTS OF BLOOD CLOTS
However, scientists have not found evidence that the vaccine was responsible. The company said on Sunday that the vaccine “has shown no evidence of an increased risk of [dangerous clotting] in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.”
Thailand will resume inoculating people with the shot on Tuesday after a brief delay on Friday. It was the first country outside of the European Union to suspend the use of the shot, one of only two that have been approved for public use in Thailand.
The World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency, and the United Kingdom’s medicine regulator still vouch for the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the organization’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety “systematically reviews safety signals and is carefully assessing the current reports on the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
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The vaccine has not been granted an emergency use authorization by U.S. regulators, although the federal government is currently sitting on millions of doses of the vaccine.
