The World Health Organization said Friday that countries shouldn’t stop using the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, denying there was a link between blood clots and the vaccine.

Context

Earlier this week, Romania, Thailand, Italy, and eight other European countries decided to temporarily suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to fears over it creating potential blood clots.

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In fact, Denmark said Thursday it would temporarily stop the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine because some patients reported suffering blood clots in the days after getting vaccinated, CNBC reports.

  • According to CNBC, Danish health officials said they would stop using this COVID-19 vaccine because there were some “reports of severe cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca.”

But there’s no link, WHO says

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said Friday there isn’t any connection between the blood clots and the vaccine.

  • “Yes, we should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Harris said.
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Per The Washington Post, “no causal link had been established” between the vaccine and blood clots.

What’s next?

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Harris said the WHO will hold an investigation and a committee will start looking into why people who got the vaccine developed blood clots after getting a vaccination.

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