European Union health regulators concluded yesterday a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford does not increase the overall risk of blood clots, a concern that had caused more than a dozen countries in the bloc to temporarily suspend its use. As of yesterday, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain said they would resume use of the drug.
A company analysis found 37 cases across the EU and United Kingdom of significant clotting issues (15 cases of deep vein thrombosis, 22 cases of pulmonary embolism) out of more than 17 million people inoculated. Health officials said the rate is actually lower than what would be expected in the general population.
Still, the agency said it could not definitively rule out a link to rare forms of blood clotting. A German analysis found seven cases of cerebral vein thrombosis—when a clot prevents blood drainage from the brain—out of 1.6 million people who received the AstraZeneca shot in the country. Population-wide rates of the disease are estimated between 2 million and 15 million per year.
Four shots are approved in the EU—Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not yet approved in the US, though President Joe Biden said yesterday the US would share 4 million doses of the drug with Canada and Mexico.
More than 75 million people in the US have received at least one vaccine shot, with the country averaging about 2.5 million doses per day. As of this morning, 539,698 total COVID-19 deaths had been reported, with a rolling seven-day average of just over 1,200 deaths per day. New cases have plateaued around 55,000 new cases per day. Explore the data here.
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