AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine suspended in more countries over low number of blood clots

London — Sweden on Tuesday became the latest to join a growing list of countries to suspend use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. More than a dozen nations, most of them in Europe, have temporarily halted use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure after a small number of people developed blood clots after getting the shot.

But experts in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe are calling it a disaster for the continent's already-delayed vaccine roll-out. COVID-19 infections are spreading exponentially again in some parts of Europe, even prompting new nationwide lockdowns.  British drug regulators and AstraZeneca executives insist there is no link between the Oxford University-developed vaccine and a higher incidence of blood clots.