Thread by @SkyScottBeasley

💉 NEW: AstraZeneca responds directly to safety concerns about blood clots following Covid vaccine- strongly refutes a link -says no evidence of increased risk

Says the number of people suffering blood clots after vaccination is LOWER than would be expected in general population

AZ: “careful review of all available safety data of more than 17m people vaccinated in the EU & UK has shown no evidence of increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country”

“So far across the EU & UK, there have been 15 events of DVT & 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine, based on the number of cases the Company has received as of 8 March. This 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. The monthly safety report will be made public on the European Medicines Agency website in the following week, in line with exceptional transparency measures for COVID-19”

Astra’s Chief Medical Officer Ann Taylor: “Around 17 million people in the EU & UK have now received our vaccine, & the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population....

....The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety.”

💉 NEW: AZ has also responded to reports about quality issues with batches in Europe- and strongly dismissed any concerns:

“In terms of quality, there are also no confirmed issues related to any batch of our vaccine used across Europe, or the rest of the world...

...Additional testing has & is being conducted by ourselves & independently by European health authorities and none of these re-tests have shown cause for concern. During the production of the vaccine more than 60 quality tests are conducted by AstraZeneca....

...its partners and by more than 20 independent testing laboratories. All tests need to meet stringent criteria for quality control and this data is submitted to regulators within each country or region for independent review before any batch can be released to countries.”

AZ is pretty clear that *it* doesn’t think there’s a link- it now seems like a “put up or shut up” situation- the European authorities need to show the link, the risk and the danger and why this vaccine should not be used- despite approval being given for it by regulators

🇬🇧 UK regulator, the MHRA, backs AZ view & repeats its that the vaccine is safe with no link to blood clots

“We are aware of the action in Ireland. We are closely reviewing reports but given the large number of doses administered, and the frequency at which blood clots can....

....occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause. People should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so.”