By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark said on Saturday that one person had died and another had become seriously ill with blood clots and cerebral haemorrhage after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
The two, both hospital staff, both received the AstraZeneca vaccine less than 14 days before they became ill, said the authority that runs public hospitals in Copenhagen.
The Danish Medicines Agency confirmed that it had received two “serious reports” without giving further details. There were no details on when the hospital staff became ill.
Denmark, which discontinued the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 11, was among more than a dozen countries that temporarily halted the use of the vaccine after reports of cases of rare brain blood clots caused scientists and governments to scramble for any connection to determine.
Some countries, including Germany and France, this week reversed their decision to suspend the use of the vaccine after an investigation into reports of blood clots by the European Union’s drug watchdog, who said on Thursday that he was still convinced that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
Denmark – along with Sweden and Norway – said on Friday that they needed more time to decide whether to use the vaccine.
“We are prioritizing reports of suspected serious side effects such as these and are investigating them thoroughly to determine if there is a possible link with the vaccine,” Tanja Erichsen, acting director of pharmacovigilance at the Danish Medicines Agency, said in a tweet on Saturday. .
“We are dealing with the two specific issues.”
Emer Cooke, director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said on Thursday that the watchdog could not definitively rule out a link between blood clots and the vaccine in his investigation into 30 cases of a rare blood clotting condition.
But she said the “clear” conclusion of the review was that the benefits of protecting people from the risk of death or hospitalization outweigh the potential risks. The EMA says the issue deserves further analysis.
AstraZeneca, which developed the survey with Oxford University, said a survey of more than 17 million people who received the shots in the EU and Britain found no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
The company declined to comment on the new cases in Denmark on Saturday, citing a statement released on Thursday in which Chief Medical Officer Ann Taylor said:
“Vaccine safety is paramount and we welcome the decisions of the regulators confirming the overwhelming benefit of our vaccine to stop the pandemic. We trust that after the thorough decisions of the regulators, vaccinations across Europe can resume.”
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Alexander Smith and Frances Kerry)