EMA Head-'Firmly Convinced That Benefits Of AZ Vaccine Outweigh Risks'

Kai Kupderschmidt at Science Magazine tweets a thread on EMA head Emer Cooke's press conference regarding EMA investigation into AstraZeneca vaccine, select quotes below:

• "This is not unexpected. When you vaccinate millions of people, it's inevitable that you have rare or serious incidences of illnesses that occur after vaccination". Role of EMA is to evaluate whether there is a causal effect or it is coincidence, she says.
• "At present, there is no indication that vaccination has caused these [blood clotting] conditions", says Cooke. "They have not come up in the clinical trials, and they're not listed as known or expected side effects with this vaccine in clinical trials."
• The conclusion for now? "While the investigation is ongoing, we are still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing #COVID19, with its associated risk of hospitalization and death outweigh the risk of the side effects", says Cooke.
• "The benefits continue to outweigh the risks", says Cooke. "But this is a serious concern and it does need serious, detailed scientific evaluation."
• "Our job is to make sure that we can maintain trust in these vaccines based on a proper scientific evaluation, and this is why we have put such high priority on coming to a clear conclusion based on the evaluation of the cases that are coming in as we speak", says Cooke.