Countries should continue using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization said on Monday, after many governments halted rollouts due to blood clot fears.
“We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a press briefing.
Her comments came as a growing list of mainly European nations suspended use of the vaccine, pointing to cases of blood clots in people who had received the shot.
The WHO said its vaccine safety experts were looking at the data and would meet on Tuesday, while Europe’s medicines watchdog will hold a special meeting on Thursday.
“WHO’s advisory committee on vaccine safety has been reviewing the available data, is in close contact with the European Medicines Agency, and will meet tomorrow,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told Monday’s briefing.
He stressed though that countries’ decisions to suspend…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
