The team at Oxford-AstraZeneca must be tearing their hair out after yet another week of hitting the headlines over a possible link between the vaccine and rare blood clots.
Back in March, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had found no link between the vaccine and an “overall risk” of blood clots. The agency could not completely rule it out, however, and asked governments to “raise awareness” about blood clots and include information about them for healthcare workers and people who were being vaccinated. Later, the agency said these rare blood clots should be listed as potential “rare side effects” of the vaccine.
Since then, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has taken precautionary steps and advised anyone with potential symptoms of a blood clot four days or more after getting the vaccine to seek urgent medical advice while it investigated claims of a link with the vaccine further. On April 7, it stated that: “It is preferable for people under the age of 30 with no underlying health conditions to be offered an alternative vaccine where possible once they are eligible.” This is because while the benefits of having the vaccine vastly outweigh the risks for those in higher age groups, the balancing act becomes trickier for those statistically less at risk of being hospitalised by COVID-19. The agency was careful to point out that there is still no conclusive evidence that the vaccine causes clots, but that the links were getting “firmer”.
The statement went on to add: “Public Health England (PHE) analysis indicates that the COVID-19 vaccination programme prevented 6,100 deaths in those aged 70 and older in England up to the end of February. All safety reports are rigorously investigated and anyone with unexpected symptoms should speak with a healthcare professional. All medicines have a risk of side effects.”
The MHRA says symptoms of a blood clot would depend on the site of the blood clot:
A clot in the lungs: shortness of breath, chest pain.
A clot in the abdomen: abdominal pain and/or swelling.
A clot in the blood vessels in the brain: headache (starting four days after the vaccine), blurred vision, confusion or seizures.
A clot in the leg: swelling and/or redness in the leg.
The agency also advises anyone with an unexplained pin-prick rash or bruising beyond the injection site to speak to a healthcare professional.
While this may worry some people, it is important to state that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective for the vast majority of people and the risk of getting clots from a coronavirus infection is far higher than the risk of getting them from the vaccine.
The MHRA, the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have concluded that the balance is very much in favour of
vaccination.
