Countries resume AstraZeneca vaccine rollout after reassurances

Indonesia joined Germany, France and others in readministering the shots after they suspended vaccinations

PRETORIA, March 19 (ANA) – A number of countries resumed the use of AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday as European Union and British regulators assured that benefits outweighed any risks after the countries had stopped the inoculations over blood clot concerns.

Ajazeera reported that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Thursday came to a conclusion that the vaccine’s benefits in protecting people from coronavirus, outweighed the possible risks.

“This is a safe and effective vaccine,” EMA director Emer Cooke told the media during a briefing on Thursday.

“If it were me, I would be vaccinated tomorrow.”

The conclusion by the EMA comes after the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) vaccine safety experts met to discuss the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, CNN reported.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would resume using the jab, meanwhile Sweden said it needed a few days to decide, the BBC said in its report.

For the time being, the EMA said a link between rare events of blood clots in the brain and the shot could not be definitively ruled out and that it would continue its scrutiny, along with the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Last week friday, WHO encouraged the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine saying there was no link between the jab and developing a clot.

“There is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe disease from the virus,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier was quoted saying by CNN.

AstraZeneca is not the only vaccine available in Europe. The EU has also authorized the BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Devereaux Morkel