Blood Clotting In AstraZeneca Vaccines Examined

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Today the EU's drug regulator said that the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19 was effective.

They say that the claims of blood clotting in patients who received the vaccine are very rare, but should be listed as potential side effects.

In the EU, 53 reported cases of blood clotting in the abdomen had been reported with 169 in the brain.

Other side effects reported by the pharmacovigilance risk assessment committee are low levels of platelets and “sometimes bleeding.”

“The risk of mortality from COVID is much greater than the risk of mortality from these side effects,” says Emer Cooke, the European Medicines Agencies, executive director. “I think it's important that we give the message that vaccines will help us in the fight against COVID and we need to continue to use these vaccines.”

the EMA or the European medicines agency reviewed the vaccine with a panel of disease experts. The panel's findings showed that the rare side effects of blood clotting in AstraZeneca's vaccine were most common in women under 60.

The EMA says that a possible reason for side effects from the vaccine could be a response from the body, a side effect that can sometimes be found in patients that are treated with heparin an anti-blood-clotting drug.

The panel released a statement that said that citizens and professionals should know about the “possibility of rare cases of blood clots combined with low levels of blood platelets occurring within two weeks of vaccination.” The committee says that while these findings are very rare, it is good that we know about them.

Experts say that it's too soon to know the precise cause of blood clotting because of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The EMA is also investigating specific age groups and underlying conditions that may be at higher risks for rare side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine.