Oxford jab takeup in Britain ‘unaffected’ by EU concerns

THERE is no evidence that uptake of the AstraZeneca vaccine is slowing in the UK, despite some European countries having decided to pause its rollout, a public health expert has said.

Professor Linda Bauld of Edinburgh University confirmed that all studies had indicated that the jab was safe and effective.

She said that the fact that countries on the Continent were reviewing their position was a sign that the system was working.

Germany has suspended use of the vaccine for people aged under 60 because of fears of a link with rare blood clots.

On Friday, the Dutch government also said that it would temporarily halt AstraZeneca jabs for people under 60, after it received five reports of blood clots with low blood plate counts following vaccinations.

British regulators said that they had identified 30 cases of rare blood clot events that were associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, they stressed that the benefits of the jab in preventing coronavirus outweighed any risks from having it. Of the 30 reported blood clot cases, seven individuals died.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, Prof Bauld said reports of blood clots were “very rare” and a direct link to the vaccine was very unlikely.

She said: “These kinds of pauses and reviews are a sign that the system is working.

“Because when you see either deaths or unlikely adverse events that you wouldn’t anticipate or you didn’t see in the trials it’s reasonable for regulators to look at this.

“The MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] is still consistently saying there’s no cause for concern, and that is absolutely the message to people.”

She added: “It doesn’t look from the behavioural response, the surveys I’ve seen, that it’s affecting uptake in the UK and that’s really important.”

Prof Bauld said she had recently received her blue letter inviting her for vaccination and she was “really looking forward” to it.