The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 is "safe and effective" and "is not associated" with a higher risk of blood clots.
AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine is "safe and effective" and "is not associated" with a higher risk of blood clots, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday.
"The committee came to a clear scientific conclusion: this is a safe and effective vaccine," EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said in a video conference.
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Rare bleeding disorders
"Its benefits in protecting people from Covid-19, with the associated risks of death and hospitalization, outweigh the possible risks," added Emer Cooke.
Based in Amsterdam, the European regulator "also concluded that the vaccine was not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots," said the director.
The latter, however, explained that the EMA "cannot definitively exclude" a link between the vaccine developed by the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca and rare coagulation disorders.
About fifteen countries, including Germany, France and Italy, have suspended the use of this vaccine as a precaution, after reporting possible side effects, such as bleeding disorders and blood clots.