The World Health Organization (WHO) expert committee today considered the link between the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and the development of thromboembolism in a minority of patients who received the “possible, but not confirmed.” dose.
In a statement in similar terms to the conclusions issued shortly before by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the WHO indicated that it is necessary to continue investigating the risk factors of vaccinations, but stresses that these types of side effects are “very rare ».
The committee’s experts recall that more than 200 million people have received AstraZeneca vaccines and that these types of rare side effects “must be weighed against the risk of death from COVID-19 and the potential of vaccines to prevent infections and deaths from it. disease”.
The WHO recalled that most of the side effects after receiving a vaccine, generally two or three days later, are usually mild.
In any case, it recommended that symptoms such as shortness of breath, pain in the chest, head or abdomen, blurred vision, swelling of the legs or appearance of skin spots in the area where the dose was injected should be examined by a doctor.
In its statement, the WHO did not allude to changes in its previous recommendations on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine (the one it is sending in greater quantities to developing countries through the COVAX program), in which it had insisted that benefits of this product outweighed the risks.
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