Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine batch halted after blood clots

[mattster]

They don't have the stocks as Astra Zeneca are refusing to export from the UK even though the EU is exporting Pfizer vaccine to the UK.

I think I read yesterday that 17m people have taken the AZ so far, across UK and Europe. If there was a serious, or even rather small, increased risk then we would know about it by now. If there is an increased risk at all, it is very, very small (there is no evidence of this), so small that the risk of catching and dying from Covid would be at least an order of magnitude larger. Problem is, people are not very good at evaluating risk.

[BlasterBates]

I think I read yesterday that 17m people have taken the AZ so far, across UK and Europe. If there was a serious, or even rather small, increased risk then we would know about it by now. If there is an increased risk at all, it is very, very small (there is no evidence of this), so small that the risk of catching and dying from Covid would be at least an order of magnitude larger. Problem is, people are not very good at evaluating risk.

They're just being cautious. Pausing for a few days on one vaccine when they're continuing with other vaccines won't make any difference because they can easily catch up. If there was a problem then this would be a far greater disaster than the delay.

[d000hg]

The main bottle neck in distributing vaccines in the EU is lack of vaccine, so if they pause for a few days it makes no difference as the vaccine doesn't go off, so they'll simply increase the number of vaccinations when it's been cleared.

A few days is a lot of deaths when cases are so high you're going back into lockdown.

[mattster]

They're just being cautious. Pausing for a few days on one vaccine when they're continuing with other vaccines won't make any difference because they can easily catch up. If there was a problem then this would be a far greater disaster than the delay.

It's not that simple though. They've given credibility to an AZ vaccine scare, and it won't be easy (or perhaps even possible) to put that genie back into the bottle. People were already refusing the AZ vaccine before it was pulled, how many are going to take it when it becomes available again? This could eaisly result in hundreds or thousands more deaths than would have otherwise occurred.

[Andy2]

The culprit whether one gets clots by the virus or by vaccine is likely the same: S-protein and its there in all the vaccines not only AZ

> inactivated virus vaccine has S-protein
> vector-virus vaccine produces S-protein
> mRNA vaccine produces S-protein
> Protein-based vaccine injects S-protein

spike protein found on the surface of the virus and produced by vaccines might mimic proteins that regulate blood vessels and control the formation of blood clots

[BlasterBates]

A few days is a lot of deaths when cases are so high you're going back into lockdown.

Actually if they pause it for 3 days in Germany that is 15000 Astra Zeneca vaccinations per day, at the current infection rate of around 5000 new infections per day with a population of 80 million means 3 additional infections. At a 2% mortality rate that will probably mean no deaths.

The fact that there are relatively few people being vaccinated with Astra Zeneca and that they can be vaccinated a few days later really is an insignificant risk.

[jamesbrown]

They're just being cautious. Pausing for a few days on one vaccine when they're continuing with other vaccines won't make any difference because they can easily catch up. If there was a problem then this would be a far greater disaster than the delay.

According to the Director General of Italy's medicines authority AIFA, the decision was a "political" one.

[d000hg]

Though WHO have now decided to review

[jamesbrown]

Particularly enjoyed this from the Brussels Playbook this morning:

Don’t underestimate the European public sphere. France, for example, decided to suspend the AstraZeneca jab in part because Germany did, “because we would have three days of stress after the German decision,” a French minister told POLITICO Monday evening.

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/b...arm-offensive/

Ouch.

[Whorty]

According to the Director General of Italy's medicines authority AIFA, the decision was a "political" one.

Certainly does feel that way. Not clever of them.