Germany, France, Italy, and Spain resumed use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, hours after the European Union's drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, said a review of the data confirmed that the vaccine is safe and effective. Norway is awaiting further research. The EMA said it found no increased risk of blood clots from AstraZeneca's vaccine, though a warning label will be affixed advising doctors and other medical experts to watch out for a rare form of clotting and bleeding in the brain.
Even if a link emerged between cerebral venous thrombosis and the vaccine, the EMA said, AstraZeneca's shots will prevent much more illness and death than they could cause. Europe is buckling under another wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths, and the World Health Organization says it isn't vaccinating its population quickly enough to slow transmission.
The decision by several European countries to pause use of the AstraZeneca vaccine not only hindered the EU's vaccination effort, it might also have irrevocably damaged trust in that vaccine — which, like all the others approved for use, has proved incredibly effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19. AstraZeneca's vaccine is also central to the effort to inoculate the developing world, because it is easier to store and not currently being sold at profit. Europe's pause appears to have dented confidence in the vaccine in those countries, too.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
