OTTAWA -- Canada’s top doctor and federal health minister say they see no reason to halt the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada, as other countries have done citing blood clots following inoculations.
Speaking to Evan Solomon, host of CTV News Channel's Power Play, on Thursday, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said that because Canada hasn’t been supplied with the same batch of AstraZeneca vaccines as the several European countries who have suspended its use, there’s no need to follow suit.
"At this moment in time, it’s just a matter of … sharing information from the European countries and regulators, but for now, we’re carrying on because we don’t have that batch of vaccines," she said.
Health authorities in Denmark, which halted AstraZeneca vaccinations Thursday after an undisclosed number of blood clots were reported and one patient died, said they stopped using the vaccine to be extra cautious, not because there was an expected connection.
The European Medicines Agency is probing the issue itself, and says 30 blood clots in more than five million patients who received the vaccine is not out of step with the normal rate of blood clots in the general population.
Norway, Iceland and others have followed suit and suspended deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"What the Europeans are telling us is that it’s not occurring at any unexpected rate above the usual incidence for these events, these clotting events. They’re not seeing it as an increase above what is normally expected in a population," said Tam.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu also told Solomon she’s reassured by Health Canada’s "thorough review" of the vaccine, which was approved by the regulatory body on Feb. 26.
"Each lot is also analyzed from a health and safety perspective and we here in Canada don’t have concerns with the AstraZeneca that we’re receiving. I will also say that we monitor very closely with provinces, in fact they report up through Health Canada, any adverse effects," she said.
Canada received its first shipment of the vaccine last week, an initial 500,000 doses manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, and deliveries to the provinces are underway. The bulk of shipments will be arriving from the U.S. and another small amount from COVAX, an international vaccine-sharing network.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has made a recommendation to not use the AstraZeneca vaccine in individuals aged 65 years and older, due to "the insufficiency of evidence of efficacy in this age group at this time." They advise that mRNA vaccines are best suited for the age group.
In an effort to thwart vaccine hesitancy, Tam added that she "wouldn’t hesitate" to take the AstraZeneca vaccine tomorrow if offered.
With a file from The Canadian Press.
