England’s deputy chief medical officer has insisted the AstraZeneca jab is safe.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that there was no evidence of increased risk of blood clots with the jab amid concerns in Europe about its safety.
And he compared side-effects in the vaccine to side-effects in an every-day product like paracetamol, which he said did not detract from the huge benefits that drug offers to most people.
He said that “vaccines don’t save lives if they’re in fridges”.
That was a reference to what is happening in parts of Europe after vaccination programmes were suspended following allegations that the vaccine could cause blood clots - a claim that many experts have rejected.
“Behind the scenes, there is a lot of work going on to look at whether there is a signal in relation to what we call venous thromboembolic events, clots, VTE for short,” he told a Downing Street briefing.
“There’s a lot of evidence emerging now that is reassuring, that there is no overall excess signal or increased risk.
“I expect, without prejudice to their absolute findings, those to be the final conclusions of the EMA and the MHRA in due course.
“So, no evidence of increased risk, but as you heard from Professor Ramsay [who was also at tonight's press conference], a lot of evidence that the vaccine is actually saving lives.
“That’s the really important thing, that we push on with this, and I think from the enthusiasm of the patients I’ve vaccinated, I see the enthusiasm of the British people to push on with this.
“Because vaccines don’t save lives if they’re in fridges. They only save lives if they’re in arms, and that’s a really important fact.”
He compared the risk of the vaccine to the risk from taking paracetamol to illustrate that there were always issues that had to be weighed up against the benefits of medication.
He said there were rare side-effects such as skin rash, mouth sores, fever and difficulty breathing.
"Those are documented rare side-effects of paracetamol," he said.
"But we all understand the benefits, and this is no different a situation."
