An expert warns halting the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab rollout because of blood clot fears means "more people will die."
Professor Jeremy Brown branded decision-makers in European countries suspending the vaccine "not logical" and "not sensible."
The top vaccines adviser said the particular type of blood clot being at the centre of concerns about the jab was 'very, very rare' and 'unlikely to be linked' to it at all.
UK ministers and the World Health Organisation are encouraging people to get the jab and urging European countries to end the suspension, as Britain's rollout is poised to pass the 25million first doses milestone later today.
AstraZeneca's safety review involving 17million people who have received its vaccine has found no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Prof Brown, who sits on the UK's Joint Committee for Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI), said the type of blood clot countries were concerned about was actually a known Covid-19 complication.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain today, the consultant in respiratory medicine said he was worried the decision by around a dozen European countries to suspend the jab could drive up the numbers of people in the UK hesitant about booking their vaccine.
"There is the concern that what's happening in Europe might make people in the UK less confident in the AstraZeneca vaccine, unnecessarily so, because it's perfectly safe," Prof Brown told GMB.
The vaccine has been given to around 11 million people in the UK "and there's been no serious side-effects" reported in this country, he added.
"It is confusing to understand why so many countries have decided to stop using the vaccine.
"Many of those countries are going through a third wave, and by stopping using the vaccine they're actually literally causing more problems.
"By not using the vaccine, this is going to directly lead to an increased incidence of Covid infection and people will die as a consequence of these decisions."
Sweden and Latvia have followed countries including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, in temporarily suspending AstraZeneca jabs in light of a small number of reports of bleeding, blood clots and low blood platelet counts.
Some of the focus has been on Germany, where officials have received seven reports in total of bleeding and a form of severe cerebral venous thrombosis associated with low platelets.
Of the seven people, three have died, and all were aged between 20 and 50, officials said.
Six had a particular form of cerebral venous thrombosis, called sinus vein thrombosis, and all of these were "younger to middle-aged women".
Prof Brown told GMB the blood clots reported in Europe were "very, very rare events which may be occurring in three or four people per million people vaccinated.
"And yet, on the other side, that is against the fact that if you vaccinate a million people with the AstraZeneca vaccine, you're going to save 1,000 lives.
"They have taken the precautionary principle about doing no harm and they have used it in the wrong way - by looking at not using the vaccine, whereas in fact you should continue using the vaccine unless there's incredibly good reasons not to."
Prof Brown said he did not believe clots reported in Germany "will turn out to be linked to the vaccine anyway - this is an incredibly rare event".
He added: "We don't know how often it occurs, even if people have not been vaccinated.
"It's a complication of actually having acute Covid infection itself, and therefore it's very, very rare and unlikely to be linked to the vaccine.
"Using that as a reason to stop using the vaccine when we know the vaccine prevents 85 to 90% admission to hospital is not sensible."
He later told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the concerns raised in Germany were "overblown".
He added: "I don't see it being likely to be linked to the vaccine either mechanistically, or the numbers involved are so low it seems very unlikely that there's much increased risk, if any increased risk, with the vaccine at all."
He continued: "To me it doesn't seem at all logical, because we do know the vaccine works...It is an incredibly effective vaccine, and by rolling out the vaccine you prevent deaths."
He said that by stopping the rolling out of the vaccine, European countries "will cause more illness and more deaths" from Covid than they would ever prevent due to the "unlikely" situation that there is an increased risk of blood clots from a vaccine.
Former chief executive of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Sir Kent Woods pointed out recent figures showed the EU recording around 2,000 deaths a day from Covid.
He continued: "This is a very serious pandemic... And I think a disruption of the vaccination of their populations is a very unfortunate event.
"The countries of mainland Europe have always lagged behind in the vaccine rollout and several of them are showing clear signs of going into yet another wave of infection.
"It is really important that vaccination rates achieve their maximum as quickly as possible.
"And given that there have been difficulties with supply in some parts of Europe, given that there has been this further confusion with suspending the vaccine programme, it is not doing anything at all for population health.
"And although it is tempting to say that the regulators in those countries are being safe, I think they're doing the opposite.
"I think they're actually increasing the risk to the population in the face of a very major pandemic."
Italy's health minister Roberto Speranza said is hopeful the European Medicines Agency, which is due to deliver its verdict tomorrow, will provide the "the clarifications and reassurances necessary" to re-start use of the vaccine.
French prime minister Jean Castex has said he is willing to take the AstraZeneca jab to demonstrate to fellow citizens "vaccination is the exit door from this crisis".
In the UK up until February 28, the MHRA has received 30 reports of blood clots in people who had the jab and 38 reports associated with Pfizer/BioNTech.
