/Thailand becomes first Asian country to suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over probe into blood clots | National Post

Thailand becomes first Asian country to suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over probe into blood clots | National Post

Eight other countries have also suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot: Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.

The World Health Organization expert advisory committee is currently looking at AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after some countries paused distribution of it, but there is no reason not to use it, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

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“At this moment in time, it’s just a matter of … sharing information from the European countries and regulators, but for now, we’re carrying on because we don’t have that batch of vaccines,” she said.

“What the Europeans are telling us is that it’s not occurring at any unexpected rate above the usual incidence for these events, these clotting events. They’re not seeing it as an increase above what is normally expected in a population,” said Tam.

The conflicting messages highlight tension surrounding the rapid-fire rollout of vaccines to protect against Covid-19, which has already killed 2.6 million people around the world. While Astra’s shot hasn’t been conclusively tied to any serious complications, concerns about potential side effects have some nations hesitating over the inoculations that were developed and launched in less than a year.

Many nations in Asia have already taken a more tentative approach to vaccinations, after largely containing the virus with intensive testing and tracing, social distancing and mask-wearing. The success allowed them to watch while other countries went first, ensuring that if serious complications arose they would be forewarned.

Widespread programs only began in recent weeks in many countries, even after the U.S. and the U.K. began mass inoculations in mid-December. Hesitancy around using the shots in Asia and Europe could derail some vaccination goals, potentially delaying the time it takes to fully protect the population.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha and some cabinet members who were scheduled to get AstraZeneca shots on Friday postponed their appointments after the suspensions in European countries, including Norway and Austria. That was the day Thailand was slated to begin its rollout of the vaccine, which accounts for 61 million of the 63 million doses the country ordered.