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Germany is suspending the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged below 60 due to concerns over the risk of blood clots forming in those who have had the jab.

Some 2.7 million people have received the Covid vaccine in Germany - and officials found more than 30 cases of a type of rare and sometimes deadly blood clot - most of them occurring in women.

Health regulators in the EU and UK - alongside the World Health Organisation - backed the vaccine earlier this month after previous cautionary suspensions in Europe.

So how significant is this German decision and will it cause lasting damage to the reputation of the AstraZeneca vaccine? We spoke to Dr Eric Feigl-Ding - epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.

"I rate AstraZeneca vaccine the most important vaccine in the world because it does not require freezing, and it's inexpensive, but now this whiplash is endangering this vaccine in terms of a public's image and I think that's extremely unfortunate."

(Photo: A health care work presents a vial with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Stuttgart, southern Germany on March 19, 2021. Photo: Marijan Murat / AFP)

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