(Clarifies lead, adds quote)
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, March 17 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization
(WHO) said on Wednesday that it considers that the benefits of
the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine outweigh its risks and
recommends that vaccinations continue.
The WHO listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University's vaccine
for emergency use last month, widening access to the relatively
inexpensive shot in the developing world.
More than a dozen European countries have suspended use of
the vaccine this week amid concerns.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which will release its
findings on Thursday, has said it was investigating reports of
30 cases of unusual blood disorders out of 5 million recipients
of the AstraZeneca vaccine. In total, 45 million COVID shots
have been delivered across the region.
The WHO said its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine
Safety is carefully assessing the latest available safety data
for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"Once that review is completed, WHO will immediately
communicate the findings to the public," WHO said in its
statement a day after its experts met.
"At this time, WHO considers that the benefits of the
AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh its risks and recommends that
vaccinations continue," it added.
Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergency expert, told a social media
event: "We would advise people to keep taking the vaccines.
Right now this virus has a much bigger chance of doing you a lot
of harm than the very, very potentially tiny risks associated
with this vaccine."
Ryan, referring to the AstraZeneca shot, said: "I think we
need to be very careful that we don't end up over-reacting and
damaging the product in people's mind until we are absolutely
sure that there actually is a problem. Right now, that is not
certain. Let's wait for the data to be looked at before we make
any conclusions."
Kate O'Brien, director of WHO's department of immunization,
said that its panel was assessing whether adverse events such as
blood clots were actually related to vaccination.
"We should not over-interpret these specific numbers that
come out of trials. They are highly effective vaccines, they are
life-saving vaccines, they are safe vaccines and we should get
on with deploying them," O'Brien told a news conference.
(Reporting Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Michael
Shields and Nick Macfie)