WORLD
WHO backs AstraZeneca COVID vaccine amid clotting concerns; green lights Johnson & Johnson shots
Baku, March 13, AZERTAC
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it was aware of blood clot concerns linked to “a specific batch” of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, but maintained that to date, no-one has died from any coronavirus vaccine, according to the official website of the Organization.
The development comes after several European countries suspended the rollout of the jab as a precaution.
“As of 9 March, there have been over 268 million doses of vaccine delivered since the start of the pandemic, and based on data reported – that’s data reported to WHO by national governments - no causes of death have been found or been caused by COVID-19 vaccines to date”, said spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris.
Speaking via videoconference in Geneva, Dr Harris noted that the WHO’s independent expert global advisory board, SAGE, was currently assessing reports on the AstraZeneca vaccine and that those findings would be made public as soon as they were available.
Blood clotting episodes are common in people “so it’s not clear if this was something that was going to happen”, or whether the vaccine was responsible, the WHO spokesperson explained.
“A causal relationship ….has not been shown”, she said, while also underscoring that the European Union medical agencies’ risk assessment committee, Pharmacovigilance, had also decided that the vaccine’s benefits “continue to outweigh the risks”.
“The panel had taken the position that the jab should continue to be administered, while an investigation of cases of these thrombo-embolic events is ongoing”, Dr Harris continued.
Countries that have reportedly paused their inoculation campaigns include Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania Norway, Iceland and Thailand.