Sweden followed suit with a fast-growing list of countries to suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccinations on Tuesday until the European regulator completed an investigation into reports of blood clots and bleeding in a small number of vaccines.
Sweden’s public health agency has said no such reports have occurred in Sweden but is awaiting the outcome of a European Medicines Agency (EMA) investigation to determine informal links between clotting and the vaccine. EMA said it plans to convene its safety committee on Thursday to draw conclusions about the data and take the necessary steps.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain were among the countries that suspended use of the vaccine on Monday.
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“The decision is a precautionary measure,” Sweden’s largest epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said in a statement.
AstraZeneca tried to defend its product earlier this week, saying a review of more than 17 million vaccinations in the EU and the UK “found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia. any defined age group does not show., gender, group or in any particular country. “As of March 8, the company has observed 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 incidents of pulmonary embolism among vaccinated individuals.
AstraZeneca says the figure does not exceed the naturally occurring coagulation in the general population, including by the World Health Organization and the EMA. Despite the rapidly growing list of countries interrupting shots, the EMA maintains that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks of side effects.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.