The move comes after reports of blot clot arising in patients who took Oxford University – AstraZeneca vaccine came to light
France is recommending that young people who got the Oxford University – AstraZeneca vaccine as their first jab for protection against the Coronavirus (COVID-19), should be given a different vaccine in their second or follow-up dose.
This comes after several reports of blot clot arising in patients who took Oxford University – AstraZeneca vaccine came to light. France is the second country to do so. Germany had also advised the same to its people.
The new recommendation will impact 530,000 people under the age of 55 years. They had received the AstraZeneca vaccine as their first dose between February and March 2021. The Haute Autorité de Santé, a panel of medical experts which advises the French Government, has recommended BioNTech-Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for the second dose.
The mixed-dose approach has been recommended by health experts in both the countries. However, there is little clinical trial data to support it. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also said that there is no data on interchangeability of vaccine platforms.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Union’s (E.U.’s) drug regulator, is also studying a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J’s) COVID-19 vaccine and the 4 cases of blood clots, which were reported in the United States (U.S.). While the J&J vaccine has already been authorised by EMA, it is yet to distributed in Europe.
Taking it to twitter, WHO tweeted,
"Earlier this week, the @EMA_News and the Medicines and other Health Products Agency from the 🇬🇧 said that unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects of the AstraZeneca #COVID19 vaccine"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 9, 2021
It further tweeted,
"#COVID19 subcommittee of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has reviewed available information & has said that a causal relationship between the vaccine & the occurrence of 🩸 clots with low platelets is plausible, but more investigation is required"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 9, 2021
Recommending the health regulators in U.K. and E.U. to continue using AstraZeneca vaccine, WHO tweeted,
"WHO, @EMA_News and @MHRAgovuk continue to recommend that the benefits of the #COVID19 AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risk of these very rare side effects"-@DrTedros
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 9, 2021
Meanwhile, J&J is working with experts and regulators to assess the data. It also said that presently, no clear causal relationship has been established.
Besides, the EMA has recently established that there was a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and unusual blood clots with low blood platelets that have mostly affected women under 60 years of age. The EMA had examined 86 such reported cases and 16 deaths. It has recommended updating the vaccine’s safety information to list the clots as a possible side effect.
