Official: EU agency to confirm AstraZeneca blood clot link

ROME (AP) — A top official at the European Medicines Agency says there is a causal link between AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine and rare blood clots, but that it's unclear what the connection is and the benefits of taking the vaccine still outweigh the risks of getting COVID-19.

Marco Cavaleri, head of health threats and vaccine strategy at the Amsterdam-based agency, told Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper on Tuesday that the EU medicines regulator is preparing to make a more definitive statement on the topic this week.

Based on the evidence to date, Cavaleri said there's a clear association between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the dozens of rare blood clots that have been reported worldwide amid the tens of millions of vaccine jabs that have been given out.

“It is becoming more and more difficult to affirm that there isn’t a cause-and-effect relationship between AstraZeneca vaccines and the very rare cases of blood clots associated with a low level of platelets,” Cavaleri was quoted as saying.

Asked about Cavaleri’s comments, the EMA press office said its evaluation “has not yet reached a conclusion and the review is currently ongoing.” It said it planned a press conference as soon as the review is finalized, possibly Wednesday or Thursday.

AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, more than a dozen countries, including Germany, suspended their use of AstraZeneca over the blood clot issue. Most EU nations restarted on March 19 — some with age restrictions — after the EMA said the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of not inoculating people against COVID-19. At the time, the EMA recommended the vaccine's leaflet be updated to tell people about the rare clots.

Any further doubts about the AstraZeneca...