William Brangham:
Judy, a group of nations including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, stopped using the shots after reports of blood clots and other problems among a small number of people who apparently received the vaccine.
AstraZeneca says there is no evidence of a connection, saying it is isolated cases, so far only 35 out of more than 17 million vaccinations. The company claims that these are the same numbers as you would find among the general population.
For a little context on all of this, I join Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo. She is a physician, epidemiologist, and professor and chair of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo, great to have you at the “NewsHour”.
Before we talk about some of these alleged side effects, I think we should emphasize that this is not a shot – the AstraZeneca vaccine is not administered in the US, and no one is getting these shots yet. They are awaiting FDA approval.
But European countries and elsewhere are using this shot, and these concerns have arisen. Can you tell us, what is there that is so disturbing?