AstraZeneca safe, says EU regulatory agency

Vaccine doesn’t increase the overall risk of blood clots and benefits of using it outweigh the risks, says EMA; UAE reports 2,101 new cases, 10 deaths; infections surge in India and Pakistan.

The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine doesn’t increase the overall incidence of blood clots and that the benefits of using it outweigh the possible risks, paving the way for European countries to resume dispensing the shots.

Several European nations, including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, had suspended their use of the vaccine over the past week following reports of clots in a few dozen of the millions of people across the continent who have gotten the shot. The question was whether the vaccine had anything to do with those clots.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi welcomed the finding by a commitee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and immediately announced Italy would resume administering AztraZeneca’s vaccine as early as Friday.

Germany, France, and others had said they would wait for the EMA’s determination before deciding whether to start using the vaccine again.

“The commitee has come to a clear scientific conclusion,” said the head of the EMA, Emer Cooke. “This is a safe and effective vaccine.”

She added: “If it were me, I would be vaccinated tomorrow.”