The European Union’s drug regulator announced March 18 that the AstraZeneca CCP virus vaccine is “safe and effective” following reports of recipients developing blood clots or even dying after getting the shot. The European Medicines Agency, in essentially clearing the vaccine for usage, said the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot isn’t associated with an increase in the overall risk of developing blood clots, and the benefits of using the vaccine continue to outweigh its possible risks. “There is no evidence of a problem related to specific batches of the vaccine or to particular manufacturing sites,” the agency said in a statement. “However, the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots associated with thrombocytopenia, i.e. low levels of blood platelets (elements in the blood that help it to clot) with or without bleeding, including rare cases of clots in the vessels draining blood from the brain (CVST). “The number of …