Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, has sought to allay concerns in the public domain following the withdrawal of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the public market.

AstraZeneca has initiated a worldwide withdrawal of its vaccines, stating that this withdrawal is due to a surplus of updated vaccines since the pandemic. According to reports, the decision to withdraw the vaccines was due to rare side effects caused by the vaccines, such as blood clotting.

Bisasor-McKenzie, who was speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday (May 15), said the side effects associated with the vaccine are very rare.

“From as early as the second quarter of 2021, we would have been alerted to the possibility of side effects, including clots associated with AstraZeneca. I remember at the time we had several interviews about it as we sought to reassure the public on the use of the vaccine. This complication is extremely rare, occurring in about 2 per 1000 persons, where there is an association between the formation of clots and within that group of persons that can have this effect, and of course you are going to have a small percentage that is going to have serious outcomes,” the CMO noted.

She said Jamaica stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine in July 2022, when the last available batch expired.

She noted that the benefits associated with administering the vaccine far outweighed the risks.

“At the time, we always had to weigh the benefits against the risks, and AstraZeneca was a main tool in how we had to respond to COVID at the time, so the benefits far outweighed the risks that were there, which were extremely rare events,” Bisasor-McKenzie noted.

She said the side effects of the vaccine generally occur from three days to three months after receiving a jab.

“The likelihood of developing side effects is three days to three months. I know that is something that persons are worried about, and as I said, the Ministry still continues to collect information on persons who think they may have suffered side effects and we investigate them to see if they are in fact related to the vaccine,” the CMO added.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said there are no reported cases locally of any rare side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“There are no reports to date of any case in Jamaica of persons, Jamaicans suffering that rare side-effect involving the AstraZeneca. So, we have clinically here on record no report of side-effects, and those who would have taken are highly unlikely or impossible to have that side-effect now,” Tufton said.

The health minister said the vaccine is no longer being administered locally.