Coronavirus Australia: What are the facts on AstraZeneca, and why have some countries halted the shot?

Australia has quashed doubts over AstraZeneca’s safety as some countries pause its rollout. Here are the facts about the jab.

Vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Picture: Joel Saget/AFP

Australian experts have quashed doubts surrounding the safety of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, despite some European countries pressing pause on the jab.

Last week, Denmark became the first country to halt its use of the vaccine after reports of blood clots in some people, including one person who developed multiple clots and died 10 days after receiving their first dose.

Norway, the Netherlands, Iceland and Bulgaria also suspended its use, once Norwegian authorities reported that four people under age 50 who had received the jab had an unusually low number of blood platelets.

Countries including France, Italy and Indonesia shortly followed suit.

AstraZeneca said 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 events of pulmonary embolism had been reported in the 17 million people who had received doses so far.

Nothing to indicate link to clots

There is nothing to indicate those thrombosis events were related to the vaccine.

“The number is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines,” AstraZeneca said.

Paul Griffin, the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services, said the complications were coincidental, and the vaccine proved “very safe and effective in large clinical trials.”

“In clinical trials now exceeding 60,000 participants, some of these (issues) were observed in low numbers but there were actually fewer in the vaccinated group than in those that had not received the vaccine,” he said.

Australian TGA and WHO back it

The Oxford-developed jab continues to hold the firm support of health authorities across the world, including Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration and the World Health Organisation.

“The TGA does not have any evidence of a biologically plausible relationship that could suggest a cause and effect relationship between vaccination and blood clots,” Australia’s health regulator said today.

No clot reports in Australia

“The TGA has not received any reports of blood clots following administration of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Australia.”

Meanwhile, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan urged countries to continue administering the inoculation.

“We do not want people to panic and we would, for the time being, recommend that countries continue vaccinating with AstraZeneca,” she said.

A total of 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been ordered by the Australian government, with 50 million to be manufactured onshore.

General practitioners are gearing up to begin Phase 1b the rollout from Monday.