The Department of Health’s Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has released a statement saying it saw no need to pause the use of the AstraZeneca anti-COVID vaccine in Australia.
The ATAGI statement follows the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine program in several European countries due to reports of a potential link with thrombotic (clotting) events.
“Thrombotic events occur commonly in the absence of vaccination,” ATAGI said.
“It is noted that the rates of thrombotic events are not higher in vaccine recipients than the expected background rate,” it said.
“The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have stated that no signals have been identified in the United Kingdom (UK) where more than 11 million doses have been administered to date.”
ATAGI said the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) was closely monitoring the situation and had been in communication with regulators, including the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the MHRA.
The Advisory Group said further clinical details of the cases were being reviewed by the EMA and further information was expected later this week.
“No cases of coagulation disorders have been identified following COVID vaccination in Australia,” it said.
ATAGI encouraged healthcare providers and the public to report any unexpected or serious adverse events which may have occurred following any COVID-19 vaccines.
Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly said other countries, such as Canada and the UK were also continuing their AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine rollouts on the basis that there was no indication that the vaccine caused the thrombotic events in Europe and they had seen no such information within their own systems.
“With a vaccine rollout like this, we need to monitor carefully for any unusual events,” Professor Kelly said.
“We will find them, but this does not mean that every event following a vaccination is caused by the vaccine,” he said.
