Again, Astrazeneca defends vaccine safety, finds no link with blood clotting

AstraZeneca has again reiterated the safety of its Oxford University developed vaccine, saying a review of over 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom shows no evidence of an increased risk of blood clotting.

The condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked by a blood clot has been termed as a shortcoming of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine. In the case against the AstraZeneca vaccine, the victims’ health worsened after vaccination.

Across the EU and UK, there have been 15 events of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine.

The growing concern on safety pushed the Federal and state governments last week to reassure Nigerians that the batch of the vaccines received in Nigeria was not a threat, although local studies are yet to confirm possible side effects.

Based on the number of cases received as of March 8, the company said they were much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of 17 million, and was similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines.

It also said the monthly safety report would be made public on the European Medicines Agency website in the following week, in line with exceptional transparency measures for COVID-19.

Ann Taylor, AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer in a statement released on Sunday, said, “Around 17 million people in the EU and UK have now received our vaccine, and the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population.

“The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety.”

More so, in clinical trials, even though the number of thrombotic events was small, these were lower in the vaccinated group. There has also been no evidence of increased bleeding in over 60,000 participants enrolled.

In terms of quality, there are also no confirmed issues related to any batch of our vaccine used across Europe, or the rest of the world.

Additional testing has, and is, being conducted by ourselves and independently by European health authorities and none of these re-tests have shown cause for concern, according to the statement.

During the production of the vaccine, more than 60 quality tests are conducted by AstraZeneca, its partners, and by more than 20 independent testing laboratories, the company explained.

All tests need to meet stringent criteria for quality control and this data is submitted to regulators within each country or region for independent review before any batch can be released to countries.

Meanwhile, following the controversies and unsubstantiated information about the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from some quarters, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, and Godwin Obaseki, Edo State governor, on Monday reassured Nigerians that the vaccine was safe. They said this after they had received their jabs of the vaccine.

Governor Sanwo-Olu, who received the AstraZeneca vaccine alongside his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, and other state officials last Friday at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) Yaba, said he felt no symptom after taking the vaccine.

He said: “I didn’t feel any side effects after taking the shot.

“It has been three days since I was vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and the deputy governor too has had his own shot. I can confirm to you that I felt no after effect at all. I didn’t have any headache, malaria or any symptom whatsoever. It was well received.”

On the other hand, Governor Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu on Monday received their first jabs with their wives and other state officials, at the Government House in Benin City, as part of activities for the roll out of the vaccine in the state, assured the citizens that the vaccine was safe.

“The vaccine is safe; we understand the politics of vaccination particularly as it relates to this. When the polio vaccine was introduced several years ago, the same fears and uncertainty were expressed.

“However, the world went ahead with vaccinating against polio; it may not have been hundred per cent, but today we’ve been able to kick out polio from our society. So, there is nothing new with this vaccine and the politics of the vaccine,” he said.