The Federal Government will likely follow the UK in giving healthy young people a choice of COVID-19 vaccines in the wake of blood clot concerns linked to AstraZeneca’s product, a leading vaccine investigator believes.

As concern mounts over the rare clotting adverse events, ATAGI and the TGA’s expert immunisation group are holding an urgent meeting on Thursday ahead of a National Cabinet meeting on Friday that will decide whether Australia’s vaccine rollout strategy needs to be tweaked.

Dr Paul Griffin, the director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services in Queensland and a member of AstraZeneca’s advisory board, said the UK’s decision to offer an alternative vaccine to people under 30 without underlying medical conditions made sense.

Younger patients were at lower risk of complications from COVID-19 and potentially at higher risk of the clotting events, he said.