Sye-gyun Jeong, “No need to stop AZ vaccine”… Urgent order to reorganize admission to the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention

When the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that there was no causal relationship with the occurrence of blood clots after vaccination of AstraZeneca (AZ), the government also said there was no reason to “stop vaccination”.

Regarding the controversy on the safety of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine on the 19th, Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun said, “Considering the results of international organization verification and adverse reaction cases confirmed so far, we believe that there is no reason to stop AZ vaccine in Korea.”

The Prime Minister’s office said that in an emergency directive sent to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on the same day, Prime Minister Chung reaffirmed the government policy and ordered the quarantine authorities to quickly clear up their stance on the AZ vaccine safety controversy.

This is due to an increase in anxiety due to the fact that a blood clot was found among the vaccinated people in Korea after the AZ vaccine was inoculated abroad and died.

Prime Minister Chung explained, “The World Health Organization (WHO) and EMA have announced the results of discussions with expert committees on the point that’AZ vaccine vaccination and blood clots are not related’.”

He emphasized, “Considering the situation that the vaccination needs to be expanded continuously, the public should not have any doubts or anxiety about the safety of the AZ vaccine.”

To this end, it was confirmed that it was instructed to convene a vaccination expert committee at the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention to thoroughly review the evaluation data from WHO and EMA and cases of adverse reactions in Korea with experts to clarify their position.

Prime Minister Chung said, “The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which oversees the safety of drugs, should conduct a professional and scientific evaluation of the possibility of thrombosis of the AZ vaccine, and disclose the results transparently.”

Meanwhile, EMA said on the 18th (local time) that in connection with a report that blood clots were formed in some who received the AZ vaccine, the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the risks, Reuters and others reported.

EMA Commissioner Emma Cook said, “We have opened an interim committee on the safety committee to reach clear scientific conclusions,” he said. “We concluded that a safe and effective vaccine was not associated with an increased overall risk of blood clots.”