15th March, 2021
The Netherlands has joined countries suspending the use of Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine over blood clot fears, amid a robust defence about its safety.
An Oxford professor who helped make the jab said there has so far been no proven link to blood clots.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine group, said “safety is clearly absolutely paramount” but no link had been found between the vaccine and blood clots.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “important to understand that a lot of stuff happens to people all the time in normal times and, in the case of blood clots here in the UK, we see about 3,000 cases of blood clots happening every month.
“So, when you then put a vaccination campaign on top of that, clearly those blood clots still happen and you’ve got to then try and separate out whether, when they occur, they are at all related to the vaccine or not.”
Pollard’s defence comes as Danish Medicines Agency clarified that a 60-year old Danish woman who died of a blood clot after receiving AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine had “highly unusual” symptoms.
It said the woman had a low number of blood platelets and clots in small and large vessels, as well as bleeding.
European vaccination programmes have been upset in the last two weeks by reports that recipients of the AstraZeneca inoculation have suffered blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency has said there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organization on Friday.
AstraZeneca Plc said on Sunday a review of safety data of people vaccinated with its COVID-19 vaccine has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots
Finland has also done a “very careful study” and have not found an increased risk, he added.
But several European countrie, such as Denmark, Ireland, Austria and Norway have suspended use of the jabs.