Will that be One Blood Clot or Two? By Brian Simpson
When I was about to submit this article, I was told that Mrs Vera West had done a paper on the blot clot issue, but I hope that there are some new things in mine. Blogs are like an infinite desert, always insatiably thirsty, gobbling down hours of work in seconds, then onwards to the next, and the next …
“A heath chief from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said that there is a link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and blood clots.
“In my opinion, we can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine,” said the EMA’s head of vaccines Marco Cavaleri in an interview with Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper.
Mr Cavaleri indicated that the EMA would confirm this view, adding, “in the next few hours, we will say that there is a connection, but we still have to understand how this happens”.
He said that “we still do not know what causes this reaction”, as reports accumulate of people across the world experiencing blood clots after receiving the jab developed by British-Swedish drug company AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
“We are trying to get a precise picture of what is happening, to define in detail this syndrome due to the vaccine,” Mr Cavaleri said.
“Among the vaccinated, there are more cases of cerebral thrombosis … among young people than we would expect.”
Investigations are underway to determine if the rare syndrome is a side effect from the AstraZeneca vaccine or just a coincidence.
The EMA said on Tuesday it had “not yet reached a conclusion and the review is ongoing”. It will announce its findings on Wednesday or Thursday.
Jab could be banned for under-30s
The EMA last week recommended that countries should keep using the AstraZeneca vaccine because the benefits outweighed the risks, as nations including Italy suspended their rollout of the jab.
The agency said that a “causal link with the vaccine is not proven but is possible, and further analysis is continuing”. It said the jab was not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots, but may be associated with clots linked to very rare condition involving low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia).
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is also said to be reviewing its guidance amid concerns the risk of extremely rare blood clots could be marginally higher among younger people.
Britain’s Channel 4 News reported that two senior sources had revealed the MHRA was being urged to ban the jab in people aged under 30, with a decision expected as early as this week.
The MHRA confirmed last week that of 18 million people vaccinated in the UK up to March 24, 30 experienced blood clots and seven died. But the regulator said the benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 far outweighed the risks.”
“There is a link between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots in the brain but the possible causes are still unknown, a senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in an interview published on Tuesday.
“In my opinion we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association with the vaccine. However, we still do not know what causes this reaction,” Marco Cavaleri, chair of the vaccine evaluation team at the EMA, told Italian daily Il Messaggero when asked about the possible relation between the AstraZeneca shot and cases of brain blood clots.
Cavaleri added that the EMA would say there is a link although the regulator would not likely be in a position this week to give an indication regarding the age of individuals to whom the AstraZeneca shot should be given.
He did not provide evidence to support his comments.
AstraZeneca was not immediately available for comment. It has said previously its studies have found no higher risk of clots because of the vaccine.”
These concerns are leading to Australia securing another 20 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. So, don’t worry, be vax happy.
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