The Philippine government will continue to use the AstraZeneca vaccine despite the decision of several European countries to halt their use of it over concerns that it causes blood clots.
The Food and Drug Authority (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) said in a statement that they, along with the National Task Force Against COVID-19, “will closely monitor all deployed vaccines” that are being used in the government’s inoculation program, and added that “the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh the risk.”
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Only AstraZeneca and Sinovac’s CoronaVac are legally available in the country, both of which have been used by medical workers.
The DOH and the FDA said they are aware that European countries have decided to stop using AstraZeneca but the European Medicine Authority had said that there is no indication that the vaccine causes blood clots.
Denmark has suspended its use of the vaccine for two weeks. Iceland and Norway did the same but their governments did not say how long this suspension will last.
Søren Brostrøm, director of Denmark’s National Board of Health, said that the suspension is temporary and maintains that the vaccine is both “safe and effective.”
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“But both we and the Danish Medicines Agency have to react to reports of possible serious side effects, both from Denmark and other European countries. It shows that the monitoring system works,” he said in a statement.
