Denmark drops AstraZeneca vaccine for good, in European first

Denmark announces it will stop using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine altogether, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects.

Despite recommendations from the World Health Organization and European medicines watchdog to continue using the inoculation, “Denmark’s vaccination campaign will go ahead without the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Health Authority director Soren Brostrom tells a press conference.

Denmark was the first country in Europe to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca shot in its vaccination rollout, after reports of rare but serious cases of blood clots among those that had received the vaccine.

More than a dozen countries followed suit but all but a few have since resumed the use after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) emphasized the benefits of the vaccine and deemed it “safe and effective.”