AstraZeneca was suspended among European Union countries due to the reports of blood clotting after inoculation. Yet, some experts from the United States questioned their decision to stop the usage of AstraZeneca in their vaccine rollout efforts.

France, Spain, Italy, and Germany are among the European Union countries that have suspended the rollout of AstraZeneca. It can be remembered that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) argued that the benefits of AstraZeneca outweigh the risks that were reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also backed the vaccine saying that AstraZeneca's rollout should also continue.

U.S. Experts on AstraZeneca Suspension

USA Today mentioned that experts from the United States had labeled the move of EU countries to be irresponsible, adding that it may threaten the global vaccination efforts.

"While it's easy to scare people, it's very hard to unscare them," said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center. Offit is also an infectious disease specialist from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Apart from the mentioned countries, Sweden also joined the suspension of AstraZeneca vaccine inoculation among their people. News Week noted that out of more than 17 million people vaccinated with AstraZeneca in the EU and Britain, there have only been 37 reports of blood clots.

The connection between the blood clots and the vaccine is still unclear. However, the developer of AstraZeneca has argued that there is no evidence of increased risk of clots and hemorrhages.

Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist from Yale University, said it is dangerous to have those kinds of conclusions. Iwasaki furthered that halting the usage of the drug is not beneficial "unless there is an unusually high rate of blood clots among people receiving a particular vaccine."

However, apart from the blood clot that has been reported, Italy has another basis on why they halted AstraZeneca in their vaccine roll. Reuters mentioned a man that has lost his life hours after he received a shot of AstraZeneca. This led Italian prosecutors to confiscate 393,600 shots of the vaccine brand. However, the Italian government confirmed there is still no evidence of the connection between AstraZeneca and the man's death.

The U.S. Should not Worry

AstraZeneca is still seeking the Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. FDA. Currently, the United States has Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson in the vaccine roll.

Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean from the National School of Tropical Medicine in Baylor College of Medicine, noted that the "European countries may have created a new problem" He added that the temporary halt of AstraZeneca may "erode vaccine confidence across Europe and Africa." Hotez is also helping develop a vaccine in India.

Despite AstraZeneca's blood clot reports, Americans should not worry about the vaccines used in inoculating them. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Fauci, noted that there have been no major issues reported in the usage of the vaccines in the American rollout. There have been only allergic and anaphylactic reactions to Moderna and Pfizer. "Other than that there doesn't appear anything that is what we call a red flag."

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