Side-Effects of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Vaccine: the EU Adds Nerve Disorder on the List

Everybody has been well aware by now that there are some possible and quite rare side-effects of the COVID vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. That’s one of the reasons why so many people are still reluctant when it comes to getting vaccinated for the coronavirus.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the medicines regulator of Europe has added the Guillain-Barré syndrome as a possible side-effect of AstraZeneca’s jab for COVID. We’re talking about an extremely rare nerve-damaging disorder.

“A reasonable possibility”

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), there is “at least a reasonable possibility” for a causal connection between the nerve disorder and the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. One of their arguments is that from roughly 592 million shots of the vaccine administered across the world by the end of July, 833 cases of the Guillain-Barré syndrome were reported.

Since the side-effect is obviously categorized as “very rare”, the EMA still claims that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.

The EMA said in guidance, as quoted by Daily Mail:

Guillain-Barre syndrome should therefore be added to the product information as a side effect of Vaxzevria [AZ],

The frequency category allocated is “very rare” (i.e. occuring in less than one in 10,000 persons), which is the category of the lowest frequency foreseen in EU product information.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19 is codenamed as AZD1222, and it’s being sold under the brand names Vaxzevria and Covidshield, among others.

If we wish to see the data regarding how many people around the world are getting vaccinated for COVID, the best way is to keep an eye on Our World in Data. According to the page, 41.4% of the planet’s population has received at least the first shot of a COVID vaccine, while 31.92 million doses are administered every day.