Astra Zeneca Vaccine

Alegrias1

OK, why don't you phone up the NHS and tell them that Kandinsky? Tell them to scrap the millions and millions of AZ vaccines we have in stock or on order. And so slow down the vaccination effort. And so expose thousands of people to Covid when they don't need to be exposed. And have more people die of Covid than need to. So that we can avoid the tiny chance of rare blood clots in younger people.

Yeah, that'll work. I'm going to assume you are being intentionally provocative.

? mind you the way this government wastes our hard earned money, nothing would surprise me.

The concern about blood clots is, as has been mentioned, the extremely rare type of blood clot events that have occurred in a small minority of younger people, and I think it is obviously right that this is investigated. In weighing up the very small risk of taking the AZ vaccine, I believe that if I refuse the vaccine and am infected with C19 I will be much more at risk from blood clotting caused by the infection than I would be from the vaccine.

I think it is very disheartening for the scientists that rare events are sensationalised in the media, and the risk factors not explained and properly understood.

OK, why don't you phone up the NHS and tell them that Kandinsky? Tell them to scrap the millions and millions of AZ vaccines we have in stock or on order. And so slow down the vaccination effort. And so expose thousands of people to Covid when they don't need to be exposed. And have more people die of Covid than need to. So that we can avoid the tiny chance of rare blood clots in younger people.

Yeah, that'll work. I'm going to assume you are being intentionally provocative.

I don’t know what the problem is?
Just scrap the AZ vaccine and give people the other vaccines that haven’t been linked to these rare blood clots.

Interesting numbers olddudders, thank you.

I went the report attached and I think they've got some of their numbers wrong.

Pfizer, 7 million doses, 12,249 adverse effects, which is 0.17%, not 0.6%. So the incidence of adverse effects with AZ is about twice that of Pfizer.

Not that this makes any difference, its still tiny compared to the risks of Covid. But it wouldn't be right to paint Pfizer in a worse light than AZ if that's not the case.

www.sortiraparis.com/news/coronavirus/articles/248104-covid-the-french-medicines-agency-releases-latest-data-about-vaccine-side-effect/lang/en

The media - social and commercial - has not helped the AZ story. The tragic death of some poor girl after being vaccinated grabs hearts and minds much more readily than the daily statistic of dozens of people dying of Covid because they hadn't had a jab. Bad news travels fastest.

The wonderful net effect all these vaccines are having is not newsworthy, sadly, which reflects badly on society and its outlook.

I wondered what the incidence of blood clots was in the general population, and apparently it is 1 in every 1000. The number rises rapidly after 45. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2020806/
So 30 out of 18 million doesn't seem to be hugely worrying. 7 deaths is of course awful but as 100,000 people die from blood clots every year perhaps it is better that awareness of the problem is being raised.

Whitewavemark2

My DD whilst not working on the AZ vaccine knows those who did, and they gave their heart and soul into its development, working night and day often without being paid.

They are shattered at the grief AZ is getting.

I certainly understand that Whitewave, it must be very disheartening for them.
I’d still like to know what’s really going on. The blood clots issue is so very small, see olddudders post, and we all know that every single medicine ever developed will have side effects for a small number of people, but people take those medicines anyway because of the good they do.

Whitewavemark2 I can quite believe it. Hard working scientists doing their utmost to help but having their work trashed by political manoeuvrings and social media armchair 'experts'!
I for one am very grateful for the scientists' efforts.

WW2 I can imagine. The AZ has been my preferred vaccine from day one and I was lucky enough to receive it. Feel really upset at the bad press, especially in Europe where I have friends.

olddudders
Good post.

My DD whilst not working on the AZ vaccine knows those who did, and they gave their heart and soul into its development, working night and day often without being paid.

They are shattered at the grief AZ is getting.

The problem for all of us is if too many people refuse the vaccine. Of course the situation re AZ should be looked into thoroughly, but nonetheless the slowing down of the vaccination programmes both here and abroad is unfortunately not good for anyone. That is when the virus could take hold again, so what worries me is if the vaccination take up slows down.

The unwanted side-effects of vaccines continue to plague many still weighing up the risks. While France is miles behind UK in vaccinating - 9m against 36m total first and second injections - it has provided some data on the very, very small % of patients who have suffered a reverse as a result of being vaccinated. And no, AZ is not the leading bad boy.

Pfizer has the "worst" result, 7m injections, with 0.6% of patients suffering a bad result, and 0.138% being serious. AZ, despite the brickbats hurled at it, has injected 1.9m, of which 0.38% caused problems, and 0.098% are serious. Moderna has already been injected 600,00 times, with 0.09% and 0.0153% respectively.

Read the Patient Leaflet for any med you are prescribed and you will find that one person in a million will have their head fall off, or similar dire side-effect. These vaccines seem to me to be doing rather well, frankly. If you get the offer - take the jab!

That’s the real danger, older people refusing it even if younger age groups seem to be involved. I know from friends abroad that sadly they lost all confidence in the AZ.

It all boils down to proving a causal link rather than just association but in the meantime all this publicity (although understandable up to a point) is going to continue to build doubts in people’s minds.

Like most of us on here I have offspring in their thirties and forties and I am relieved that they have all said they will have whichever vaccine they are offered.

Symptoms, pain in chest or legs or wherever else you have a clot, like DVT. Sister had chest pains, out of hospital after 2 days, BIL in legs, out of hospital in 3 days. Must check up on others.

How did they know they had clots and where were the clots Katie?

Bluesky is right, it’s a particular sort of blood clot that’s the issue. They should get JVT on to explain it to the nation. ?

Whitewavemark2

katie blimey if you know several in their 60s who have had blood clots then they represent the whole lot in the U.K. as the amount is very small.

Yea, my sister and her husband both had clots, then 2 friends, maybe just a scary coincidence, no idea which vaccine they had, all recovered.
Won’t stop us having our second jabs, but something is going on.

Apparently there have been blood clots in the US shortly after the Pfizer too, but those investigated in Europe are the extremely rare CSVT, which I believe it only happened with the AZ. Didn’t really need this scare at the moment but good it’s being looked into.

katie blimey if you know several in their 60s who have had blood clots then they represent the whole lot in the U.K. as the amount is very small.

Well, that is not right then is it.

My DD asked and was told that they were being given AZ. He was called because he was born with 2 holes in his heart, no idea what the other children had as underlying health issues.

So he is not the only one in the U.K. having been given AZ. And they are not taking part in a trial.

Katie59

I know several in their 60s that have had blood clots, which is not usual, and coincided with Covid jabs, I have no idea what the association is, all I can say is there were none before vaccination started.

Although blood clots are associated with coronavirus there is probably a problem with getting a mild infection around the time you get vaccinated.

How did they know they'd had blood clots? Interested in symptoms.

Trial even!