Sweden is now the latest European country to halt use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients.
The company and international regulators continue to say the vaccine is safe, however, and many countries elsewhere in the world are forging ahead with their vaccination campaigns.
The move by the Swedish Public Health Agency is pending an investigation by the European Medicines Agency. The decision is a precautionary measure, Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said in a statement.
“We are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19 with its associated risk of hospitalization and death outweigh the risk of the side effects,” said Emer Cooke, the head of the agency.
Many scientists have argued that even the loss of a few days in vaccinating vulnerable people could be far costlier than the impact of any rare phenomenon.
But a cascading number of countries have taken a different view and locked away shots from the Anglo-Swedish company, awaiting the results of an EMA review, promised Thursday.
A growing number of European countries ‘ including Germany, France, Italy and Spain ‘ have suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, though the company and international regulators say there is no evidence the shot is to blame for the blood clots.
Sweden has stood out for its comparatively mild response to the pandemic. The country avoided lockdowns and relied instead on citizens’ sense of civic duty to control infections. As of Tuesday, more than 13,140 people had died of COVID-19 in the Scandinavian country, far more per capita than in Sweden’s neighbors but fewer than in other European countries that did implement strict lockdowns or curfews.