GENEVA, Switzerland, March 18 ------ World Health Organization experts on Wednesday recommended countries continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine, but said they were looking into the jab’s safety after a slew of countries suspended its use over health fears. The WHO, Europe’s medicines regulator and AstraZeneca itself have repeatedly said the vaccine was safe after several countries reported feared links with blood clots or brain hemorrhages.
The suspensions have marred the global vaccine drive aimed at ending a year-long pandemic that has already killed more than 2.6 million people around the world since it first emerged in China in late 2019. But the WHO’s vaccine experts said Wednesday it was still better to take the AstraZeneca vaccine than not — adding that it was looking into available data on the jab. “The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety is carefully assessing the latest available safety data,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
“At this time, WHO considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.” The recommendation echoed a similar statement from the European Medicines Agency on Tuesday advising countries to continue using the vaccine, saying there was no link with clots. The Amsterdam-based agency said in a statement is holding an extraordinary meeting Thursday to finalize its conclusions on the blood clot issue and “make any necessary recommendations for further action”.
Several countries from France to Venezuela to Indonesia said they would not use the vaccine after several reports emerged of blood clots and brain hemorrhages in people who had received the vaccine. The British-Swedish jab has been dogged by controversy from early on in its rollout, after some countries initially recommended it for people over the age of 65 and then backpedaled, saying there was insufficient data for people in the age group that had received the shot. The firm later sparred with the EU, which accused it of failing to fulfil vaccine contracts after the bloc’s immunization campaign came under fire for a sputtering start.
Source: inquirer.net