A senior European drug regulator official said there appeared to be a “clear link” between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clots.
“In my opinion, we can say it now, it is clear that there is a connection with the vaccine. But we still don’t know what causes this reaction, “Marco Cavaleri, chairman of the European Medicines Agency’s vaccine evaluation team, told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero on Tuesday.
He said that “in the next few hours, we will say that there is a connection, but we still need to understand how this happens.”
The regulator is investigating 44 reports of an extremely rare brain clotting disease known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.
Cavaleri said the agency would not yet be able to provide guidance on how safe the vaccine is to be given, although a high proportion of cases have occurred among young and middle-aged women.
AstraZeneca and regulators have repeatedly stated that the benefits outweigh the risks, noting that blood clots have been rare and have occurred in 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area.
“While the investigation is ongoing, we are still firmly convinced that the benefits of AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with the associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risk of these side effects,” the EMA executive director said recently. Emer Cooke. month during a briefing.
Several European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, have stopped using the vaccine while regulators are investigating reports of blood clots.
With Post threads