AstraZeneca Vaccine Causes Blood Clots, COVID-19 Task Force: There Is No Indication Regarding That Matter

Illustration-AstraZeneca Vaccine (Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Agencia Brasilia)

JAKARTA - The government continues to monitor developments in the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is rumored to have an impact on the occurrence of post-immunization Association (AEFI) in the form of blood clots in vaccine recipients.

The spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Prof. Wiku Adisasmito emphasized that the AstraZeneca vaccine that has arrived in Indonesia is safe to use. Even so, the issues circulating are getting tighter towards several European countries stopping the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"Currently, there is no indication that the AstraZeneca vaccination causes blood clots. It is also not listed as a side effect of AstraZeneca", said Wiku at National Board for Disaster Management, Jakarta, Friday, March 12.

This also refers to a statement from the European Medicine Agency (EMA) which states that the AstraZeneca vaccine is still safe to use.

In addition, based on existing facts, as many as 10 million AstraZeneca vaccines have been used. But not in the least addressed negative symptoms such as the risk of pulmonary embolism or venous thrombosis in age group, sex, and other groups.

"From this fact, the number of incidents of this kind is significantly lower than that of injection recipients compared to the incidence in the general population", said Wiku.

Furthermore, Wiku emphasized that the AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been injected into the national vaccination target. Later, the vaccination process will follow the allocation process determined by the Ministry of Health and wait for a halal certificate from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

"For AEFI from any vaccine, continue to be monitored by health facilities implementing vaccination. And monitored centrally by the Food and Drug Inspection Agency (POM), and further analyzed by Komnas Post-immunization follow-up events (KIPI)", he said.