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Canada is suspending use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for people under the age of 55 over concerns the injection could cause blood clots, ABC News reports.
Why is this important: AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine has been suspended in parts of Europe and has yet to receive authorization for emergency use in the U.S. Canada also faces a relatively slow rollout of the vaccine , with only 1.8% of its population fully vaccinated, Bloomberg News notes.
- Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization has recommended that AstraZeneca vaccine distributions be stopped.
- Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are also authorized in Canada. The United States is expected to send 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada this week.
Between the lines: Dr Joss Reimer, a member of the Manitoba Vaccine Implementation Task Force, said Monday that there had been no vaccine-related blood clots in Canada, but the break is “by caution”.
- “While we still believe that the benefits for all ages outweigh the risks, I’m not comfortable with ‘probably’. I want to see more data coming out of Europe so that I know exactly what this risk-benefit analysis is, ”Reimer said.
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