The possible relationship between the "AstraZeneca" vaccine against the emerging corona virus "Covid-19" and blood clots is still raising a lot of medical and political controversy, so what does the head of the research team that oversaw the development of the vaccine at the University of Oxford say?

The AstraZeneca vaccine is among the most used vaccines against the Corona virus, especially in the United Kingdom and Europe, which made it the subject of an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between London and the European Union, which reached the point of threatening to prevent the export of the vaccine from the countries of the Union to the United Kingdom.

Adding to the suspicion of causing the vaccine to cause rare blood clots is the recommendations of the British Medicines and Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), which called for avoiding vaccinating people under the age of 30 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, and said that there are indications that the vaccine is related to blood clots, which still need to be studied.

Al-Jazeera Net contacted the research team that supervised the manufacture of the vaccine at the University of Oxford, to know their scientific position on the controversy over vaccination, and the answer was from the team leader, Professor Andreu Polar, who spoke frankly and clearly about the effectiveness and safety of this vaccine.

Reassurance and confidence

Professor Andreu Polar, head of the research team that oversaw the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine at the University of Oxford, confirmed that vaccine security was a priority for his team throughout the course of vaccine development and manufacture, during the past year.

With great confidence, the British expert spoke to Al Jazeera Net about his reassurance about the way the vaccine is being handled.

The professor of immunology and infection said that the monitoring and tracking operations carried out by pharmaceutical agencies and government health institutions, across the world, "are reassuring, especially since the vaccine is used in different countries of the world."

Regarding the possibility of the vaccine causing blood clots, the British professor emphasized that the diagnosis of "some very rare cases of blood clots and the possibility that this was due to the vaccine shows that the safety and control system is working well."

He added that until now, "all the conclusions of the British European Medicines Authority are still convinced that the effectiveness of the vaccine and its benefits are greater than its risks," welcoming the precautionary measures taken by some countries such as Britain, which "aim to reduce any potential risks of the vaccine."

The head of the team of researchers developing the AstraZeneca vaccine described the Corona epidemic as a very great threat to the lives of people around the world, pledging to continue "in carrying out our mission to support vaccination throughout the world."

And he stressed that this mission "is not intended to reap material or other profits, but rather for the benefit of all humankind."

Suspicions and caution

After a long wait, the British Medicines and Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), in its latest publication, did not resolve the relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clotting, although it recognized, for the first time, that the indications for this link are getting stronger, but it needs more research.

The authority that prepares the authority to authorize the use of any vaccine, or to suspend its approval, said that its scientists do not yet recommend any determination of the age group that will benefit from the vaccine, and that is their position on the decision of a number of European countries that decided not to grant the vaccine to people over the age of 60 or 65 Year.

In terms of numbers, the authority revealed that more than 20 million Britons had received the AstraZeneca vaccine, and the chance of developing a blood clot due to the vaccine was 4 out of every million people.

Among the conclusions reached by the authority’s scientists is that the statistics show the possibility of young people developing blood clots, and for this it recommends taking this into account, which is what prompted the British government to announce that people under the age of 30 will be vaccinated with a vaccine other than the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Statistics indicate that 79 cases of blood clots were reported, among them 51 women and 28 men, of ages ranging from 18 years to 79 years, noting that the number of women who received the vaccine is greater than the number of men, and among these cases 19 deaths were recorded. Of them, 3 of them are under the age of 30, which is the number that prompted the authority to recommend that the age group of those under 30 should not be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The authority believed that every drug has side effects, but this will not prevent it from continuing to monitor, follow-up and analyze data and data, to identify all the symptoms that the vaccine can cause, noting that this vaccine has so far saved thousands of lives.