The World Health Organization on Monday cautioned that experts have not found a link between the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and blood clotting issues as more countries suspend their use of the shot. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that reports of blood clots in people who had the vaccine do "not necessarily mean these events are linked to vaccination" but added that "it is routine practice to investigate them."Tedros said that WHO's vaccine safety advisory committee is reviewing the data and will meet on Tuesday. "The experts are looking at the data, and so far we do not find an association between these events and the vaccine because the rates at which these have occurred in the vaccinated group are, in fact, less than what you would expect in the general population at the same time," said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan. She said that for the time being, WHO recommends countries continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine. "So far, of the 300 million doses that have been given to people across the world, of course using different vaccines, there is no documented death that's been linked to a [COVID-19] vaccine," Swaminathan said. "So I think that while we need to continue to be very closely monitoring this, we do not want people to panic." Spain on Monday joined other European nations like Italy, France and Germany in suspending the vaccine's use while awaiting a pending review by the European Medicines Agency, which on Monday reiterated that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. AstraZeneca has defended its product, but it's a big setback for the company's vaccine, which has already suffered from the perception of having a slightly lower efficacy than some others in trials.
WHO Cautions Against Conclusions on AstraZeneca Vaccine
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