The precautionary principle kills again.
Several European countries recently paused vaccinating their citizens with the Oxford-AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine, in light of scattered reports that a few patients had developed blood clotting after being inoculated. Meanwhile, the continent has been experiencing a third wave of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Now the European Medicines Agency has evaluated the risks and the benefits of being inoculated with the AZ vaccine. « The benefits of the vaccine in combating the still widespread threat of COVID-19 (which itself results in clotting problems and may be fatal) continue to outweigh the risk of side effects, » it concludes. Furthermore, « The vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots…in those who receive it.
