A senior official of the European drug regulator said there appears 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’s causing 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 there is a connection, but we still need to understand how this is happening.”
The regulator is investigating 44 reports of an extremely rare brain coagulation disease known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.
Cavaleri said the agency still cannot provide advice on what age is safe to receive the vaccine, although a large proportion of cases occurred among young and middle-aged women.
AstraZeneca and regulators have repeatedly said the benefits outweigh the risks, noting that the blood clots were rare and occurred in 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area.
“While the research is ongoing, we still firmly believe that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with the associated risk of hospitalization and death, outweigh the risk of these side effects” , said Emer Cooke, EMA director. month during a briefing.
Several European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, have stopped using the vaccine as regulators are investigating reports of blood clots.
With pole wires