AstraZeneca vaccine not recommended for adults under 55 at this time

Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunizations has recommended that AstraZeneca not be administered as a COVID-19 vaccine to adults under 55 while potential complications involving blood clots are investigated by Health Canada.

Meanwhile, Southwestern Public Health is awaiting an announcement about three pharmacies in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford that would become vaccination sites for AstraZeneca distribution for adults in their 60s.

The new guidance from NACI should not affect those plans, the health unit stated.

NACI, in announcing new guidance on the use of AstraZeneca, said that rare cases of serious blood clots had recently been reported in Europe after the vaccine started to be used there.

Those incidents have so far primarily been in women under 55, though some involved men had already been reported. The clots occurred four to 16 days after receiving the vaccine.

Whether the AstraZeneca vaccine was connected to those cases was now being investigated, NACI stated.

Given that other vaccines were available, NACI recommended not using AstraZeneca for adults under 55 for now.

Those 55 and older would still be offered the vaccine, given that the risk of blood clots was not as high as for developing serious complications from catching COVID-19, and since blood clots seemed rarer in this age category, NACI said.

Symptoms associated with the clots included shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain, neurological symptoms including headaches and blurry vision, and skin bruising.