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(Adds details on Europe's regulator, pace of rollout)
LONDON, April 7 (Reuters) - Britain should not give
Oxford/AstraZeneca's COVID-19 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.
He said that for younger people, where the risks of
hospitalisation were much lower, the risk/benefit calculation of
the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot meant others vaccines were
preferable.
"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," Lim 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, echoing an
update from Europe's medicine regulator also made on Wednesday.
Europe's and Britain's medicine regulators have both
previously said that there is no increased risk of blood clots
in general from the shot developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca.
However, both have been investigating small numbers of
reports of a brain blood clots, know as cerebral venous sinus
thrombosis (CVST), that have occurred in combination with
unusually low blood platelet levels after people have been given
the shot.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said the move
would have only a negligible impact on the pace of Britain's
vaccine rollout.
The rollout of Moderna's shot began on Wednesday,
while Britain is also deploying Pfizer's vaccine.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Kate Holton and Alistair
Smout; editing by James Davey)
