France, Germany, Italy suspend AstraZeneca vaccinations amid reports of blood clots
15 March 2021
France, Germany and Italy on Monday became the latest countries to suspend use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in order to investigate reports of blood clots in recipients, joining Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, Ireland and several others.
The state of play: AstraZeneca has insisted that its vaccine is safe, and the World Health Organization has cautioned countries against suspending vaccinations. The German health ministry said it was taking the step as a “precaution.”
What they're saying: AstraZeneca said in statement Sunday that there have been 15 cases of deep vein thrombosis and 22 cases of pulmonary embolism among the 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and United Kingdom thus far.
- "This is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed COVID-19 vaccines," the pharmaceutical company said.
- "The nature of the pandemic has led to increased attention in individual cases and we are going beyond the standard practices for safety monitoring of licensed medicines in reporting vaccine events, to ensure public safety," AstraZeneca's chief medical officer Ann Taylor said.
A World Health Organization spokesperson said Monday: "As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe disease from the virus."
The big picture: AstraZeneca is one of four coronavirus vaccines that have received emergency authorization in the EU, in addition to Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. AstraZeneca has not yet applied for emergency authorization in the U.S., as it awaits data from a large clinical trial.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.