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North Korea rejects AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine over potential side effects, including fatal blood clotsTuesday, July 13, 2021 by: Nolan Barton North Korea had reasons to be concerned. AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine made headlines several times for all the wrong reasons since it received the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in late January. Right after its approval, various countries in Europe decided to not use it for the elderly and chose to wait for more data. (Related: Researchers confirm antibodies from the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine cause blood clots.) In March, more than a dozen European countries temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after cases of blood clots and low platelet counts emerged. The company had also been accused of withholding data to make the vaccine seem more effective than it actually was in human trials done in the U.S., Chile and Peru.