
Please try another search
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that it considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue.
The WHO listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University's vaccine for emergency use last month, widening access to the relatively inexpensive shot in the developing world.
More than a dozen European countries have suspended use of the vaccine this week amid concerns.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which will release its findings on Thursday, has said it was investigating reports of 30 cases of unusual blood disorders out of 5 million recipients of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In total, 45 million COVID shots have been delivered across the region.
The WHO said its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety is carefully assessing the latest available safety data for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"Once that review is completed, WHO will immediately communicate the findings to the public," WHO said in its statement a day after its experts met.
"At this time, WHO considers that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that vaccinations continue," it added.
Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergency expert, told a social media event: "We would advise people to keep taking the vaccines. Right now this virus has a much bigger chance of doing you a lot of harm than the very, very potentially tiny risks associated with this vaccine."
Ryan, referring to the AstraZeneca shot, said: "I think we need to be very careful that we don't end up over-reacting and damaging the product in people's mind until we are absolutely sure that there actually is a problem. Right now, that is not certain. Let's wait for the data to be looked at before we make any conclusions."
Kate O'Brien, director of WHO's department of immunization, said that its panel was assessing whether adverse events such as blood clots were actually related to vaccination.
"We should not over-interpret these specific numbers that come out of trials. They are highly effective vaccines, they are life-saving vaccines, they are safe vaccines and we should get on with deploying them," O'Brien told a news conference.
(Reporting Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Michael Shields and Nick Macfie)
PARIS (Reuters) - French care home company Orpea, under pressure over its business practices and the way it runs its homes, on Sunday announced proposals to shake of its board of...
Investing.com – Israel stocks were higher after the close on Sunday, as gains in the Real Estate, Communication and Technology sectors led shares higher. At the close in Tel Aviv,...
By Selena Li and Clare Jim HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese property developer Shimao Group has missed the interest and principal payment of a $1 billion offshore bond due on Sunday,...
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.