Agency to confirm clot link
A top official at the European Medicines Agency says there’s a causal link between AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and rare blood clots, but that it’s unclear what the connection is and that the benefits of taking the shot still outweigh the risks of getting Covid-19.
Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based agency, told Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper that the European Union’s medicines regulator is preparing to make a more definitive statement on the topic this week.
Asked about Cavaleri’s comments, the EMA press office said its evaluation ‘‘has not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing’’. It said it planned a press conference as soon as the review was finalised.
Based on the evidence so far, Cavaleri said there was a clear association between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the dozens of rare blood clots that have been reported worldwide amid the tens of millions of AstraZeneca shots that have been given out.
‘‘It is becoming more and more difficult to affirm that there isn’t a cause-and-effect relationship between AstraZeneca vaccines and the very rare cases of blood clots associated with a low level of platelets,’’ Cavaleri was quoted as saying.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Late in the day, however, the pharmaceutical company and Oxford University, which developed the vaccine, announced they were pausing the trial of their jabs in children while British regulators investigate the potential blood clot link in adults.
In Geneva, the World Health Organisation said its experts were also evaluating a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots — and that it might have a ‘‘fresh, conclusive assessment’’ this week.
In March, more than a dozen countries, including Germany, suspended using AstraZeneca over the blood clot issue. Most EU nations restarted on March 19 – some with age restrictions – after the EMA said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of not inoculating people against Covid-19. –