Denmark has become at least the sixth European country to reduce the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after some people who have received it have developed blood clots.
Health officials say they are investigating the cases, but there is no evidence so far that the British drug jab has caused clots to form.
The Danish health and medicine authority stopped launching the AstraZeneca jab for at least two weeks on Thursday following “severe cases” of blood clots in vaccinated people, one of whom was linked to a death.
Danish officials say they need to take time to investigate these incidents, even though there is good evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective.
Magnus Heunicke, Minister for Health of Denmark, said it is not yet clear if there is a connection between the shooting and blood clots. Danish officials are waiting for the European Union authorities to investigate the potential link.
“Right now we need all the vaccines we can get. Therefore, stopping one of the vaccines is not an easy decision, “said Søren Brostrøm, director of the Danish National Health Council, in a statement. But precisely because we vaccinate so many, we must respond with timely care, when there is knowledge about possible serious side effects.
Denmark’s decision came after five EU nations – Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Latvia – stopped using doses from a single batch of AstraZeneca vaccine this week due to concerns about blood clots.
Three people in Austria developed blood clots after receiving the jab, including one who died 10 days after vaccination, according to the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drug regulator.
A fourth patient developed a pulmonary embolism, a condition in which a blockage forms in the arteries of the lungs, officials said.
The European Medicines Agency said that “there is currently no indication” that the AstraZeneca vaccine has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects for the shot.
EU officials are investigating the quality of the affected batch – which includes about 1 million doses delivered to 17 countries – even though “a quality defect is considered unlikely at this stage,” the agency said.
In all, 22 cases of blood clots were reported on Tuesday among the 3 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Economic Area from 29 nations, officials said.
“The information available so far indicates that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is not higher than that observed in the general population,” the European Medicines Agency said in a statement on Wednesday.
An AstraZeneca spokesman said the vaccine’s safety had been “studied extensively” in clinical trials, and peer-reviewed data confirmed that the vaccine was “generally well tolerated.”
“Patient safety is the highest priority for AstraZeneca,” a company spokesman said in a statement. Regulators have clear and strict efficacy and safety standards for the approval of any new medicinal product and this includes the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine.