WHO backs AstraZeneca – says no need to halt vaccine rollouts rollout
As health authorities in Denmark said on Thursday that they are temporarily suspending the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine as a precautionary measure after some patients developed blood clots since receiving the jab. WHO stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting
The World Health Organization said there was no reason to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab after several countries suspended rollout over blood clot fears, while the hard-hit United States exceeded 100 million doses of vaccine administered to its people.
The WHO, which said its vaccines advisory committee was examining the safety data coming in, and stressed that no causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and clotting.
To date, WHO has approved two vaccines for emergency use against COVID-19: the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine – approved on 31 December 2020 – and two versions of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, on 15 February 2021.
Later on, WHO also announced it had given clearance to the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, for emergency use in all countries and for the international UN-partnered effort to roll-out vaccines equitably across the world, COVAX.
