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The European Union’s drug regulator insisted Tuesday that there is “no indication” the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots as governments around the world faced the grimmest of dilemmas: push on with a vaccine known to save lives or suspend its use over reports of clotting in some recipients. The European Medicines Agency urged governments not to halt use of the vaccine at a time when the pandemic is still taking thousands of lives each day. And already there are concerns that even brief suspensions could have disastrous effects on confidence in inoculation campaigns the world over, many of which are already struggling to overcome logistical hurdles and widespread hesitancy about vaccines. (Casert and Jordans, 3/16)

Health authorities and scientists threw their weight behind AstraZeneca PLC’s Covid-19 vaccine, but beleaguered European governments that have suspended its use defended their caution. The European Union’s medicines regulator said Tuesday that the benefits of using AstraZeneca’s vaccine outweigh possible risks, after similar comments Monday by the World Health Organization, despite reports that some people who had received it suffered blood clots and several of them had died. (Pancevski, Sylvers and Dalton, 3/16)

France and Italy say they are ready to quickly restart inoculation programs with the AstraZeneca vaccine if regulators confirm it’s still safe to use. The preliminary statement from the European Medicines Agency on Tuesday was “encouraging,” the office of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Tuesday in a statement following a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron. It added that in the event of a positive conclusion by the EMA, France and Italy were ready “to promptly restart” inoculations with the vaccine. (Amaro, 3/17)

Countries across Europe are pausing use of AstraZeneca-Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine, saying they are acting out of caution, but U.S. scientists say it's an irresponsible move that threatens the global vaccination effort and the opportunity to end the pandemic. "While it's easy to scare people, it's very hard to unscare them," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Taking the vaccine off the market – even temporarily – could doom the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and tarnish all other vaccines as well, he said. (Weintraub, 3/16)

Australia is urging the European Union to divert 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine that it’s already contracted to near-neighbor Papua New Guinea, as a wave of coronavirus infections rocks the Pacific region’s most-populous nation. The formal request to AstraZeneca and European authorities comes just weeks after Italy blocked a shipment of 250,700 doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine to Australia, using a recently introduced EU regulation for the first time. (Scott, 3/16)