AstraZeneca vaccine suspended in several EU countries after cases of thrombosis

The AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on standby. This was announced by Denmark, Iceland and Norway on Thursday 11 March, after the report of 'serious cases of blood clots forming in people who have been vaccinated' with the serum of the Swedish-British laboratory, as reported by the Danish health authorities in a statement, stressing however that at present, 'one cannot conclude to the existence of a link between the vaccine and the blood clots.'

A measure taken 'as a precaution'

The drastic measure, was taken 'as a precaution,' said the Danish National Health Agency, which should wait for the results of the investigation opened Wednesday by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to decide, whether or not to put the AstraZeneca vaccine back into circulation in the country.

According to the European agency, only 22 cases of thrombosis have been reported as of March 9, for 3 million people vaccinated throughout the European economic area. 'It is important to stress that we have not given up on the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that we are taking a break in its use,' said the director of the Danish agency, Søren Brostrøm in the press release.

Denmark said it had recorded just one case of death by thrombosis after an injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the data of which was transmitted to the EMA.

Other countries shun AstraZeneca vaccine

Denmark is not the only European country to shun the serum in recent days. On Monday, Austria announced that it had given up on administering a batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine after the death of a 49-year-old nurse following 'serious bleeding disorders,' which occurred a few days after an injection.

A decision soon followed by Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Luxemburg, who have renounced the use of vaccines from the same batch, delivered to 17 countries and comprising a total of one million doses. As of Wednesday, the EMA clarified that the death of the nurse was not a consequence of the injection of the vaccine. The vaccine suspension in Denmark will be reassessed within two weeks.

A few days ago, it was the slight side effect of another vaccine (the one developed by Pfizer/BioNTech) that caused much attention. In the United States, several doctors have noted cases of swelling of the lymph nodes located under the armpit after a vaccination against Covid-19. A much less serious side effect, however.