In a statement, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca said that an analysis of safety data covering more than 17 million doses of the vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk of the conditions concerned.
It said that no trends or patterns were observed in clinical trials.
The spokesperson said: “An analysis of our safety data that covers reported cases from more than 17 million doses of vaccine administered has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia with Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca […] “In fact, the reported numbers of these types of events for Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca are not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the unvaccinated population”.
“… is nothing more than a very short deferral”
This comes as, over the weekend, Ireland joined a number of other countries in temporarily suspending the administering of the AstraZeneca jab, pending more details and advice. The Minister for Health has said he hopes the decision to temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine “is nothing more than a very short deferral”. Stephen Donnelly also said he expects a decision by the European Medicines Agency on an assessment of the reports of blood clotting will be completed this week.
“We’ll see what the EMA says in the coming days, but what we hope is that this is nothing more than a very short deferral,” he said.
The administration of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was suspended in Ireland earlier today as a precaution following concern over blood clots in Norway. Mr. Donnelly said the decision was made on foot of a recommendation from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC).
So far, more than 110,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in Ireland, which is about 20% of all doses given to date.
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For the latest information on the Covid-19 Vaccine Programme, please visit hse.ie/covid-19-vaccine
