Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
A UK-based agency stated that it has found 25 more cases of rare blood clot events in people that have taken the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. On March 18, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had reported five cases of a rare brain blood clot among 11 million administered shots.
On Thursday the medical agency reported 22 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, an extremely rare brain clotting ailment, and 8 cases of other clotting events associated with low blood platelets out of a total of 18.1 million doses given.
However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has deemed that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks.
Advertisement
AstraZeneca has delivered 29.8 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to European Union (EU) member states in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, just “a few doses away” from the promised 30 million, a European Commission spokesperson said.
Some countries are restricting use of the AstraZeneca vaccine while others have resumed inoculations.
Blood clot reports from several countries prompted governments around the world to halt inoculations with the AstraZeneca jab. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) EMA, which had approved the jab in January, launched a review of the risks last month.
“The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion,” the agency’s chief Emer Cooke said when presenting the findings.
“This is a safe and effective vaccine. Its benefits in protecting people from Covid-19, with the associated risks of death and hospitalisation, outweigh the possible risks,” Cooke added.
The agency’s committee concluded that the vaccine was not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots.
“When you vaccinate millions of people, it’s inevitable that rare or serious incidences or illnesses will occur in the time immediately following vaccination,” she said.
The EMA, therefore, recommended issuing warnings by including the risks in the product information.
Advertisement
