GENEVA, Switzerland - The risk-benefit balance for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is "still largely positive", the World Health Organization said Tuesday after fresh claims about links to blood clots.
A top official from the European Medicines Agency -- the EU's drug regulator -- claimed there was a clear connection between the jab and clots, though the EMA itself said it was still reviewing data and no conclusions had yet been reached.
The WHO said there was no evidence that the risk-benefit analysis had shifted on the jab, which is one of only three different COVID-19 vaccines so far to have received the green light from the UN health agency.
"There is no link for the moment between the vaccine and thrombotic events with thrombocytopenia," Rogerio Pinto de Sa Gaspar, the WHO's director for regulation and pre-qualification, told a press conference.
"The appraisal we have for the moment -- and this is under consideration by the experts -- is that the benefit-risk assessment for the vaccine is still largely positive.
Agence France Presse
