From: slider@anashram.com

Seven people have died from unusual blood clots after getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, the medicines regulator has
confirmed to the BBC.

In total, 30 people out of 18 million vaccinated by 24 March had these
clots.

It is still not clear if they are just a coincidence or a genuine side
effect of the vaccine.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says the benefits continue to outweigh any risk.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56620646

However, concern has led to other countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada to restrict the vaccine's use only to older people.

The data released by the MHRA on Friday showed 22 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) which is a type of blood clot in the brain.

These were accompanied by low levels of platelets, which help form blood
clots, in the body. The MHRA also found other clotting problems alongside
low platelet levels in eight people.

Now the MHRA has confirmed, in an email to the BBC, that "sadly seven have died".

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, said: "The benefits… in preventing Covid-19 infection and its complications continue to outweigh
any risks and the public should continue to get their vaccine when invited
to do so."

Investigations are under way to determine if the AstraZeneca vaccine is
causing the very rare blood clots. Earlier this week the European
Medicines Agency said it was "not proven, but is possible".

"This raises the possibility that the vaccine could be a causal factor in
these rare and unusual cases of CVST, though we don't know this yet, so
more research is urgently needed," said Prof David Werring, from the UCL Institute of Neurology.

The other issue is the difference between the Oxford-AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

There have been two cases of CVSTs after Pfizer in the UK, out of more
than 10 million vaccinated, but these did not have the low platelet levels.

However, there remains uncertainty around how common these clots normally
are. Estimates range from two cases per million people every year to
nearly 16 in every million in normal times and the coronavirus has been
linked to abnormal clotting, which may be making these clots more common.

Germany has reported 31 CVSTs and nine deaths out of the 2.7 million
people vaccinated there, with most cases in young or middle-aged women.

Similar data on who has been affected in the UK has not been published in
the UK, but a wider mix of people are thought to have been affected.

All medicines, from vaccines to paracetamol, have the potential to cause
severe side effects.

The seasonal flu jab has around a one-in-a-million chance of causing the
nerve disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome.

So, the real question is: Are the risks worth the benefits?

Even if the vaccine was the cause, and this is still not proven, the
numbers suggest around one death in every 2.5 million people vaccinated.

However, this has to be weighed against the known threat posed by
coronavirus.

If 2.5 million 60-year-old people caught coronavirus then around 50,000
would die. If they were all 40-year-olds then around 2,500 would die.

This balance of risk and benefit will continue to be assessed as more
safety data comes in and as the vaccine programme moves into younger
people, who are at lower risk of dying from Covid-19.

One scientist has told the BBC that evidence is growing that the blood
clot events are "causally related", although he stressed that the benefits
of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine still far outweighed the risks of not
getting the jab.

Prof Paul Hunter, a medical microbiologist at the University of East
Anglia, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is not uncommon to get
clusters of rare events purely by chance.

"But, once you find that cluster in one population and it then crops up in another - such as previously in the German and now in the English - then I think the chances of that being a random association is very, very low.

"Clearly more work needs to be done, but I think the evidence is shifting
more towards it being causally related at the moment."

However, public health expert Prof Linda Bauld, of the University of
Edinburgh, told BBC Breakfast the cases were "rare events" and stressed
there was no event "at the moment of a causal link - that the vaccine
would be directly causing these outcomes".

She urged the public to continue coming forward for a jab, and added:
"Covid itself increases the risk of blood clots quite significantly and
it's possible that that may be part of the explanation why we're seeing
this."

### - hmm, this is indeed slightly worrying? but then only 7 deaths here
out of a total of 18 million shots to date makes the odds very low @
currently 2.5 million to one of dying from it (which is very low indeed,
almost non-existent in betting terms...)

i mean, most people consider the flu jabs safe/rare enough at odds of 1
million to one of something bad happening, so 2.5 million to one for covid
jabs is even less risky?

a curious factor amongst them being these low platelets (red blood cells)
which is linked to anemia, so maybe these particular people already had something along those lines... i.e., some early form of anemia or an as
yet undiagnosed but emerging bone marrow cancer where these platelets are produced, and/or possibly even the existence of some kind of platelet
disease itself such as sickle cell anemia...

whatever the factors involved actually are it's pretty rare anyway, enough
for them to continue to urge people here to still have it...

it's a bit too late for moi though whose already had one shot of it hah,
the booster due in a couple of months time they'll hopefully know more
about it by then...

so place yer bets! haha :)))

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