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THE EUROPEAN MEDICINES Agency (EMA) has said that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective and that it is not associated with an increased risk of blood clots.
The agency held an extraordinary meeting today to finalise its conclusions on a small number of blood clotting events that were reported following vaccination.
Head of the EMA, Emer Cooke said that the vaccine is a safe and effective vaccine and that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.
However, the EMA “cannot rule out definitively a link between these cases and the vaccine”. The EMA’s safety committee has instead decided to draw attention to the possible rare conditions by including details within the vaccines leaflets.
“What the committee has therefore recommended is to raise awareness of these possible risks, making sure that they are included in the product information,” said Cooke.
“Drawing attention to these possible rare conditions and providing information to health care professionals and vaccinated people will help to spot and mitigate any possible side effects.”
A number of countries across Europe, including Ireland, paused use of the vaccine in recent days following reports by the Norwegian Medicines Agency of serious events in four patients.
Officials in Ireland had said the decision to pause the use of the vaccine had been made on a precautionary principle.
Cooke said that the EMA was aware that EU member states had suspended vaccination while they awaited the EMA review.
Given that thousands of people in the EU die every day – in fact over 2,500 were reported one day last week – it really was crucial for EMA to review rapidly and thoroughly all the available evidence, so we made this review our highest priority
According to Cooke, the EMA worked closely with the UK’s health regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) during the rapid review.
“The scientific conclusions adopted today provide member states with the information they need to take an informed decision regarding the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in their vaccination campaigns.”
World Health Organization experts yesterday recommended countries continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine, but said they were looking into its safety.
Following the publication of the EMA review, Italy announced that it will resume administering the vaccine tomorrow. Health officials in Sweden said they need a “couple of days” to evaluate the ruling and the pause will remain in place for now.
Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) said in a statement this evening that close safety monitoring of reports of blood clotting disorders will continue, and further studies are underway to provide more laboratory data as well as analysis of further real-world evidence.
It added that it has not received any reports of cases of these blood clots.
The MHRA said earlier today that available evidence does not suggest that blood clots in veins are caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In a statement, the MHRA said that the advice remains that the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccines outweigh any risks and that people in the UK should continue to get their jab when it becomes available.
“Our review has found that the available evidence does not suggest that blood clots are caused by COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca,” said Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, the Chair of the Commission on Human Medicines.
“We have been closely reviewing all reports of blood clots in the vein (venous thromboembolism, or VTE) following vaccination. There is no evidence either that VTE is occurring more often in people who have received the vaccine than in people who have not, for either vaccine.”
The WHO, the EMA and AstraZeneca itself have repeatedly said the vaccine is safe.
The HSE has said the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) will assess the advice from the EMA and will issue guidance to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). NPHET will then make recommendations to the Minister for Health.
It is likely that these recommendations will include updated clinician and patient information in relation to these reported conditions and the symptoms associated with them.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said it will take “a period of days” to re-start the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Ireland once fresh recommendations are issued from public health officials.
He said the health service will attempt to deliver the vaccines – around 30,000 jabs – that were delayed last week as soon as possible. A further 10,000 doses from AstraZeneca are due to be delivered to Ireland next week.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the HSE will “immediately endeavour” to restart vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine when the all-clear is received from the EMA.
“It will take some time, because obviously people have to be notified again, logistics have to be put in place and the venue has to be organised and so on,” said Martin.
“But we will be doing everything we possibly can to accelerate the vaccine, particularly for those who have had their vaccinations postponed as a result of the decision taken last weekend.”
amazon is great, should be in ireland by now.. Some items from amazon.co.uk don’t deliver here or have high shipping costs..
Use the nightline courier and they give you a N.I address so if its free UK shipping you get that part of delivery free and they also allow delivery of anything that can be sent to the UK!!
Can you explain that a little more please? I don’t really get you x x x x
Haha
That’s what I don’t understand if they can deliver to the north they can’t deliver in the south when I only live an hours drive from the border..
This.should.answer all your questions…
That’s a great idea!!
parcelmotel.com and you;re sorted when it comes to delivery to Ireland :)
^
is there an echo in here?
^^Is there an echo in here?
The desk made out of a door is now a badge of honour in Amazon. Employees who perform exceptionally well get to build their own desk from a door. When you walk around the office and see some mad looking desk, you know you’re dealing with someone who is excellent at their job.
Given the high employment and partnership ebay have with Ireland, I think you should be mor ebalanced in your coverage of online retailers
Bit ironic, having an A to Z smiley when they won’t deliver half the stuff on offer to an Irish address.
Check out Parcel Motel. They give you a UK address and deliver the parcels to you in Ireland.
Its annoying as all hell when it happens but in their defence IIRC any sale that is direct from or fulfilled by Amazon.co.uk will be delivered to Ireland. However Amazon, much like other sites like play.com also acts as a store-front for smaller sellers who are allowed to set their own shipping terms. As Amazon is only getting commission on those sales they do not dictate the sellers shipping policies
And they don’t pay tax in the UK
They also sold a book called ‘The paedophile’s guide to love and pleasure; a Child-lover’s code of conduct’. They have let their factory workers work in conditions bordering on slavery and have sacked workers, en-masse, because they attempted to unionise. I wonder if they sell a book about how they really operate.
And very little elsewhere. Boycott this behemoth. There is other smaller companies that need support.
Hope they never, ever, ever set up shop here. There wouldn’t be a bookshop left in the country. Look at what Tesco have done and continue to do to small, independent retailers.
They do deliver books here. But I agree with your sentiment. I try to shop in local bookstores when I can, but sometimes they don’t have the books I want and to order them costs twice as much as amazon. If that’s the case then I do order from amazon, but only after trawling the local shops. I actually enjoy searching the number of shops for what I’m looking for because sometimes I come across books I wouldn’t have normally seen.
Nature of progress unfortunately, everything’s going digital download. Most stores are turning into storefronts for online retailers.
I agree Thomas. And movies and music in digital format are very convenient. Some would say the same about kindle and ebooks but personally, even though I’m a total techie, still prefer printed books. I guess it may be that I spend so much time looking at a screen for work and in general!
I green thumbed you. Not because of what you said, but because you sir, have excellent taste in profile pictures.
Too late for that. They already have offices in Cork and Dublin.
Another interesting fact that many people might not know is that they are one of the worst employers in Cork, who punish you with a point system if you are genuinely sick.
On any given Monday, 5% of teachers in Ireland are “genuinely” sick.
Ive no idea what the same stats are for the self-employed, but I’d hazard a guess they are considerably lower.
Amazon’s points system disincentives absenteeism, quite frankly I don’t take issue with it.
Sure bud, I bet you’d agree with those conditions when your dying sick with the swine flu and get pointed as a result.
I heard that 40% of sick days taken by teachers are on Mondays and Fridays. Shocking.
They used neo-Nazi security guards in Germany to police an immigrant workforce.
I knew all those things. Just because the majority of your readers are brainless sheep then don’t presume that we all are.
On behalf of all sheep, Get over yourself!
Baa
I’d say you’re great craic Adam.
Have you applied to Mensa yet?
Moo
Dammit.!!!
Slow news day?
There’s always one….
I’ve never bought anything on amazon. So there you go
Thanks for the informative article, amazonpublicrelations.ie
Awesome company. I have had 3 kindles smash due to my own clumsiness and every time they have sent me new ones free of charge including delivery.
That’s because they don’t make money from the devices but the content that you will buy.
You forgot to mention how Amazon almost power most of the internet with their Amazon Web Services. Lots of popular internet services live on top of Amazon, e.g. Foursquare, Netflix etc. And that Dublin in the European home for these services with multiple Amazon data enters around the capital.
What most people don’t know
This is an interesting article about Amazon in Germany-
You can’t use your amazon.com gift card balance on amazon.co.uk which means you end up paying higher shipping costs, customs fees and duty and you’ll be waiting longer to get it.
I thought it was a river.
Given the high employment and partnership ebay have with Ireland, I think you should be more
balanced in your coverage of online retailers
Yes, we heard you the first time.
Use ParcelHotel
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