AstraZeneca jab not linked to clotting: co-developer

The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group on Monday said there was no link between the jab it developed with AstraZeneca and blood clotting, after several countries suspended its use.

Andrew Pollard said there was "very reassuring evidence that there is no increase in a blood clot phenomenon here in the UK, where most of the doses in Europe been given so far".

"It's absolutely critical that we don't have a problem of not vaccinating people and have the balance of a huge risk, a known risk of Covid, against what appears so far from the data that we've got from the regulators -- no signal of a problem," he told BBC radio.

Ireland and the Netherlands on Sunday became the latest countries to suspend their use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine out of precaution. 

Denmark, Norway and Iceland have also paused their rollout of the jab.

AstraZeneca said on Sunday there was no evidence of increased blood clots from the jab after outcomes from 17 million doses were analysed.

The pharmaceutical company said the 15 incidences of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and 22 events of pulmonary embolism reported among those given the vaccine was "much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a...