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LONDON, April 7 (Reuters) - Britain should not give Oxford
University/AstraZeneca's vaccine to under 30s where
possible, Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and
Immunisation (JCVI) said on Wednesday, due to a very rare side
effect of blood clots in the brain.
Wei Shen Lim, COVID-19 Chair for JCVI, said that based on
the available data and evidence, the committee has advised that
it is preferable for adults aged under 30 with no underlying
conditions to be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca
vaccine where available.
"We are not advising a stop to any vaccination for any
individual in any age group. We are advising a preference for
one vaccine over another vaccine for a particular age group,
really out of the utmost caution, rather than because we have
any serious safety concerns," he said at a briefing.
He said people should continue to have a second dose of the
AstraZeneca shot if they had received a first dose.
It came after Britain's MHRA medicine regulator identified a
possible side-effect from the COVID-19 vaccine developed by
Oxford University and AstraZeneca involving rare brain blood
clotting.
Chief executive June Raine said that the benefits of the
shot outweighed the risks for the vast majority.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Alistair
Smout; editing by James Davey)
