Canada Considers AstraZeneca Vaccine Safe

Health experts in Canada consider all vaccines administered in the country to be safe and effective, including AstraZeneca’s.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday after numerous EU countries suspended the drug’s use as a precaution following reports of side effects.

The reports in Europe concern blood clots and platelet deficiency. Italian authorities have seized a batch of nearly 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccines in a death investigation.

Canada is naturally looking at what’s going on with “a specific batch” in Europe, said Trudeau, who assured his fellow countrymen that no doses from that batch were delivered in Canada. The AstraZeneca vaccine was approved in Canada last month. The country has ordered 20 million doses, with an additional 2 million in mid-May.

The drug, which was developed in collaboration with Oxford University, has not yet been approved in the United States. The results of a significant final clinical trial are currently under review.

In about a month, the AstraZeneca vaccine could receive emergency authorization in the US, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Monday.