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European regulator says AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine is ‘safe and effective,’ but link to rare blood clots cannot be ruled out

BERLIN — Europe’s medical regulator concluded Thursday that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is “safe and effective,” but it could not rule out a link to a small number of rare and unusual blood clot cases — an assessment that opened the way for European countries to restart paused inoculation programs, while not fully allaying fears surrounding side effects.

The European Medicines Agency said it investigated 25 cases, including nine deaths, that involved particularly rare blood clots: one type of brain clot and another condition that clogs multiple veins in the body. The agency noted that was out of the 20 million people in Europe and Britain who have received the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

“A causal link with the vaccine is not proven, but is possible and deserves further analysis,” the agency concluded. Continue reading.

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