The UK drug regulator has stated that the AstraZeneca Vaccine has wide benefits against the coronavirus. But due to rare cases of becoming blood clotting, people under 30 years will be offered a second vaccine. The regulatory body has found in its investigation that people who were given the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain till the end of March. Out of that, 79 people were found to have cases of blood clotting. Out of this, 19 people died.
The country’s ‘Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’ (MHRA) said on Wednesday that as long as it is studying the relationship between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clotting, Pfizer Vaccine and Moderna are offered to people in the respective age groups. Moderna vaccine should be applied for the company. The head of MHRA, Dr. June Raine, said that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine are greater in most people than the risks.
Vaccine benefits more than risk
The decision was announced shortly after the European Union’s drug regulator stated that it had detected a possible contact between the AstraZeneca vaccine and blood clotting. However, it has also said that people benefit more from this vaccine than the risks. The European Medicine Agency (EMA), in a statement, did not announce any new restrictions on the introduction of the vaccine to people 18 years of age or older.
Currently reviewing the results of EMA
“It is becoming very difficult to say that there is no causal interaction between AstraZeneca’s vaccine and the extremely rare clotting of blood associated with platelet depletion,” said Marco Cavalieri, Amsterdam-based agency’s head of health risk and vaccine strategy. The agency said that its evaluation has not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently underway. Emer Cook, executive director of .EMA, stated that the alleged cases of abnormal clotting of the blood after the introduction of AstraZeneca vaccine should be considered as potential side effects of the vaccine.
