AstraZeneca vaccine concerns
Denmark temporarily suspended inoculations of residents with the AstraZeneca vaccine after concerns about links to an increased risk of blood clots. Out of more than 142,000 Danish residents who have received the Covid-19 vaccine, only a few have reported severe cases of clots. One patient died.
“It is currently not possible to conclude whether there is a connection,” Magnus Heunicke, the Danish minister of health, wrote on Twitter. “We acted early, it needs to be thoroughly investigated.” The European Medicines Agency said that there is currently no indication the vaccine “has caused these conditions.”
Austria suspended a specific batch of the vaccine when a patient died after blood clots formed and another was hospitalized with a similar condition. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg also suspended the batch. Norway and Iceland suspended the drug altogether, and Italy suspended a separate batch, Reuters reported.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ The European Union’s drug regulator approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday. The move comes amid mounting frustration with a sluggish inoculation campaign.

■ Amid swirling misinformation, Ukraine has struggled to find enough residents willing to get the vaccine. The country’s vaccine hesitancy rate is among the worst in Europe, even among doctors and nurses.

■ Coronavirus cases in Germany are ticking up, more than half of them caused by the B.1.1.7 variant first discovered in Britain. “We are seeing clear signs: In Germany the third wave has already begun,” the leading public health official said.
The New York Times
Me: If Coronavirus/Covid does not get you AstraZeneca vaccine probably will