Concerns Rising About the AstraZeneca Vaccine
Multiple countries around the world, including the United States, Canada and many European countries have reported rare cases of sometimes fatal blood clots developing in patients that have recently received the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
How serious are these blood clots?
Blood clots are small clumps of gel-like blood that can prevent bleeding in certain areas of the body. Should they travel to the brain, they could prevent blood from circulating properly, which is often fatal.
Experts believe that the blood clots, which appear in roughly 1 in 100,000 patients who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine, are a result of antibodies activating platelets, which are a component of blood.
What are experts saying?
Experts, including the European Medicines Agency (EMA) maintain the vaccine is “safe and effective” and that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the possibility of developing blood clots. They have urged countries to continue distributing the vaccine, especially in regions where the AstraZeneca vaccine is the only one available amid global disparities in access to vaccines.
Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines both require them to be stored in low temperatures, while AstraZeneca’s does not. This means that the AstraZeneca vaccine is more accessible for those living in rural or underdeveloped regions where deep freezers are unavailable.
What are countries doing in response?
The response of most countries has been swift but varied. The majority have limited the use of the vaccine to elderly patients most vulnerable to COVID-19 and are offering alternatives for younger people, likely due in part to preliminary data which has shown that young people tend to be more likely to develop blood clots as a result of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Germany and Spain have limited the vaccine to those over 60, Canada and France to those over 55 and Australia to those over the age of 50. As of 14 April, Denmark was the first and only country to completely halt the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing health concerns and their ability to continue with their inoculation campaign by relying solely on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Written by Bruce Yu
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