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It is not the risk of blood clots that causes the Public Health Agency to temporarily tighten the handbrake for Astra Zeneca’s covid-19 vaccine, but an entirely different kind of side effect.
Anders Tegnell, a state epidemiologist with the Swedish Public Health Agency. Stock Photography.
Why is the vaccine stopped?
– Following meetings between the Medical Products Agency and the EMA (the European Medicines Agency), a different type of signal has emerged about another possible side effect in some cases in Europe. And based on that and after discussions with the Medical Products Agency, we believe that this signal should be investigated. So we have said that we will take a break from vaccines at least until Thursday when the EMA had a little more time to gather this information that has come in, says state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
What side effect then?
– It is a form of hemorrhagic side effect. You drop platelets, so it bleeds more easily. But you can also get it in combination with blood clots. So it is an unusual, but quite serious picture that you can get for many different reasons, but you have now seen a number of cases where there is a temporary connection to the Astra Zeneca vaccination.
So it’s not the blood clots?
– No, the EMA and the Medical Products Agency have made the assessment that this was not more common than in people who have not been vaccinated, but these are other symptoms that have appeared.
How many cases are involved?
– There are between 10 and 20 cases in Europe of several million vaccinated.
Is it a fatal side effect?
– There is currently no information on how it ended, so to speak, but these are serious symptoms and that is exactly what is being investigated at the EMA right now.
Do you hope to be able to resume vaccinations with the Astra vaccine soon?
– It is not possible to evaluate today, but it depends entirely on what this research shows. Now we slow this down for a few days until we get a little better information. Then based on that, we can have a discussion about what it means. This is a precautionary measure and we hope you can fix this and continue to use the vaccine, but until we know better, we believe that in this situation we are slowing down.
When was this discovered?
– The first signals came last Friday, and there has been more talk about it this weekend and last night we had a meeting with the Medical Products Agency and it was then when we landed that this is what we have to do, so it has gone very Quick.
