Refinery 29
Is the AstraZeneca vaccine safe? Yes! Here’s what you should know
AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company behind the latest vaccine COVID-19 to release the results of its clinical trial, seeks to join the group of vaccines already approved in the United States. On Monday, the company announced that its vaccine was found to be 79% effective against the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. and that they would apply for approval for use in April, according to the Associated Press. The news of the general effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes after Europe has enacted a temporary ban against it, after reports of blood clots and unexplained bleeding in the people who received it. Of the millions of injections across the continent, about 30 cases of blood clots forming in the body have surfaced, prompting leaders in countries like France and Germany to stop importing the vaccine, outside the public interest. However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), after investigating the matter, concluded on Thursday that there were more benefits than risks in relation to the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “This is a safe and effective vaccine,” said Emer Cooke, EMA’s executive director, during a news conference on Thursday, as reported by Al Jazeera. “If it were me, I would be vaccinated tomorrow.” Although skepticism about this particular vaccine has reached the United States, there is no evidence to support it. Medical experts were in the corner of AstraZeneca throughout the resistance. Many pointed out that the vaccine proved to be effective in what it intended to do in the first place: to protect people from the spread of COVID-19. “Although the AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved for use in the United States, I hope it will be soon,” Dr. Paul S Pottinger, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Refinery29. “This is because it has been found to be very safe and highly protective against COVID-19 in very large and well-designed clinical trials.” On whether or not the AstraZeneca vaccine played a role in the development of blood clots in certain patients, Dr. Pottinger notes that they were not a side effect detected during larger clinical studies and doubts a causal relationship between the clots and the vaccine. “The risk of being injured or even killed by COVID-19 is certainly greater than this theoretical and unproven risk of blood clots,” he added. Despite the uproar caused by the few cases of blood clots, the AstraZeneca vaccine is not even the first widely distributed vaccine to be linked to this side effect: blood clots have been reported to have formed in some patients after using the human papillomavirus (HPV) Gardasil vaccine during the late 2000s until the mid-2010s. After further investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 90% of people who reported blood clots had underlying risk factors, including genetic coagulation abnormalities and smoking. “It was the Danes who put the kibosh on Gardasil several years ago because of a very vague pain syndrome,” said Dr. John D. Grabenstein, RPh, PhD, general manager of Vaccine Dynamics, in his defense of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “Stopping a vaccination program should require more than the identification of an adverse event, it must be when it is rising above a baseline value, not just when something bad has happened to a vaccinee.” Popular forms of birth control pills, widely available and commonly used, are also known to increase the risk of blood clotting by up to four times, thanks to increased production of estrogen, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Still, even in his defense of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the cautious approach taken by European medical experts has been understood to some extent by experts here in the United States. “It’s early, so I think we should be cautious,” said Dr. Norman Baylor, the President and CEO of Biologics Consulting. “They were very clear for the sake of caution. You can look at science and you can also look at perception. I’m just speculating, but I think they thought it was the best thing to do. The verdict is still pending. ”If the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved for use in the United States, it will certainly not be the first vaccination that comes with some kind of risk. In the long run, its hypothetical approval will lead to more accessibility to the vaccine for those who need it. Additional reporting by Molly Longman. Like what you’re seeing? How about a little more kindness R29, right here? Women are more likely to have side effects from the vaccine Everyone loves Michelle Obama’s PhotoTrump vaccine wants vaccinated people to thank him