Is Astra Vaccine Safe? Government Announces Results Of Verification

The results of expert discussions on the controversy over the controversy that AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine causes blood clots and future measures will be announced today.

According to Yonhap News on the 22nd, the government held a vaccination expert committee composed of experts in the field of health and infectious diseases on the afternoon of the 20th to review the safety controversy over the AstraZeneca vaccine. Based on this, the government announced that there is no problem with the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

It is known that the Vaccination Committee shared the current status of adverse reactions at home and abroad reported after vaccination of AstraZeneca, and discussed the evaluation results of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

On the 19th, the EMA concluded that vaccination did not increase the overall risk of blood clots, and evaluated that the benefits of vaccination were significantly higher than the risk from side effects. Prior to this, on the 16th, the WHO also held an expert committee to review the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but concluded that “the vaccine efficacy is greater than the risk” and recommended continuing vaccination.

Based on these opinions, the Vaccination Specialist Committee has prepared its position on the controversy about the safety of this vaccine.

In this regard, Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun said at a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters the day before, “reconfirmed that there is no problem with the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

Accordingly, the government is expected to proceed without change in a large framework for the second quarter vaccination plan, which is primarily targeted at 65 years of age or older, based on the recommendations of the vaccination committee.

However, there is a possibility that some detailed guidelines such as terminology and precautions in the 2Q vaccination plan will be partially supplemented.

EMA said that additional analysis is necessary for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which are very rare after vaccination, because there are cases of suspicion that appear to correspond to this in Korea.

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