The vaccines | vaxxed boosted unvaxxed? New poll

How's your immunity looking? Had covid - vote twice - vax status and then again for infection status

  • Vaxxed but no booster

  • Boostered

  • Still waiting in queue for first vaccine dose

  • Won't get vaxxed (unless I have to for travel/work etc)

  • Past infection with covid + I've been vaccinated

  • Past infection with covid - I've not been vaccinated


Results are only viewable after voting.
You were told the vaccines hadn't been rushed in terms of safety because ...... drum roll ..... they haven't been rushed in terms of safety.

Countries have acted out of caution and now you say that caution is a sign that there is a real issue? That makes no sense. If the facts were exactly the same and fewer countries made a temporary halt that wouldn't alter the data one iota.



How do you think every vaccine is studied post initial approval? Why do you want to ignore the very consistent data that shows the vaccines have a major effect reducing transmission? Based on your past posting history I simply don't believe that you form your opinions based on peer reviewed literature, so suddenly deciding that you will ignore very recent data that hasn't been published yet, emphasis on yet, seems to me to be disingenuous at best.

You seem to be forming opinions based on evidenceless feeling so is it any wonder that people think you are talk out of your backside.



It is rarer than you would expect if you hadn't been immunised. There is no causation mechanism even suggested. You would have a better (but still incorrect) argument if you were saying that vaccination reduced the incidence of blood clots.

You were told the vaccines hadn't been rushed in terms of safety because ...... drum roll ..... they haven't been rushed in terms of safety.

I'm going by this source that indicates phase 3 trials can take one to 4 years: https://www.antidote.me/blog/how-long-do-clinical-trial-phases-take

Countries have acted out of caution and now you say that caution is a sign that there is a real issue? That makes no sense. If the facts were exactly the same and fewer countries made a temporary halt that wouldn't alter the data one iota.

There's potential for issue, yes. A few days ago Germany was disappointed that neighbouring countries had paused the AZ vaccine.. now they themselves have paused it. This is definitely a potential for a real issue.

Why do you want to ignore the very consistent data that shows the vaccines have a major effect reducing transmission?

Show me one peer reviewed study now that proves transmission is largely reduced after covid vaccination. From my research there wasn't one as it's currently too early to make definitive conclusions - which is my whole point to all of this.

There was the Lancet study that hasn't been peer reviewed https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3777268

There's the cambrdige university one as well that hasn't been peer reviewed.
 
Ronaldo's Mum Eh is another one in the same boat.
Dude I have no problem with these vaccines, my problem is essentially forcing it on people and don't say it's not essentially because it is. If you don't get it you're not allowed to live life.. essentially that's forcing it. This is where our arguments differ.

My other problem with these vaccines is a lot of the people who can't wait to get one (anecdotally from my experience) are the same ones who have neglected their health all their life. Every person I know so enthusiastic of vaccines has barely stepped foot in a gym, eaten healthy and are avid drinkers.

Maybe the second scenario is what's bothering me more with society and humanity overall.

Otherwise I hope this vaccines cures everyone and we can all go back to living how we were living before.

Some of you have been so afraid of dying that you forgot to continue living.
 
I'm going by this source that indicates phase 3 trials can take one to 4 years: https://www.antidote.me/blog/how-long-do-clinical-trial-phases-take

They can take longer but they didn't. Having a pandemic meant we not only did we have a need to conduct them quickly but it also provided the conditions that allowed them to be done quickly. You had populations where you could easily examine the affect of vaccination vs placebo when the virus was running wild. There was no need to spread them out over years or decades because we could get the necessary data.

Show me one peer reviewed study now that proves transmission is largely reduced after covid vaccination. From my research there wasn't one as it's currently too early to make definitive conclusions - which is my whole point to all of this.

There was the Lancet study that hasn't been peer reviewed https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3777268

There's the cambrdige university one as well that hasn't been peer reviewed.

It is too soon for peer reviewed journal articles. They take time so they will appear soon especially as we are still adding to the data so when published the error bars will be much reduced and give us more accurate answers. However, the interim data is so overwhelming that it will only be a matter of how much infections are reduced (a difference of a percent or two most likely) and how hugely symptoms/hospitalisations are reduced when infected after vaccination. You seem to think it is possible that the results so far are imaginary.
 
Dude I have no problem with these vaccines, my problem is essentially forcing it on people and don't say it's not essentially because it is. If you don't get it you're not allowed to live life.. essentially that's forcing it. This is where our arguments differ.

It isn't complusory. You just want the benefits of others taking it yourself. To protection everyone's health as many people as possible must take it and those who don't must be restricted to protect everyone's health, especially those who genuinely can't take. Not different from current practice were yo have to immunise to enrol your kids in school or to be eligible for certain family tax benefits in some countries. personally I'd add a 1% Medicare levy on anyone who refused a covid vaccination without a genuine medical exemption to help cover the cost of their selfishness.

My other problem with these vaccines is a lot of the people who can't wait to get one (anecdotally from my experience) are the same ones who have neglected their health all their life. Every person I know so enthusiastic of vaccines has barely stepped foot in a gym, eaten healthy and are avid drinkers.

Quite a task but you have topped yourself with baseless idiotic statements.

Everyone I know can't wait for a vaccination irrespective of their age, health or fitness level as it is the way back to normality and that is a country where we are more back to normal than most because we actually took the pandemic seriously. Since you like anecdotal evidence I'll give you 3 examples. Me, 57 years old, not medical predispositons, mild overweight but fit as a fiddle, probably drinks slighly more than is good for me at weekend. My sleeve is already rolled up for any vaccine that is authorsied. Two others I had salad lunch with today. My wife's 27 year old personal trainer, did a triatlon 2 weeks ago, runs daily and of course exercises constantly in his job. He wants the jab yesterday especially as he has elderly sick parents. Then my wife. Same age as me, very fit indeed, exercises more than once daily, runs 10km for fun regularly and will be a qualified PT by the end of the year - more enthusiastic than me for a jab.

Maybe the second scenario is what's bothering me more with society and humanity overall.

Otherwise I hope this vaccines cures everyone and we can all go back to living how we were living before.

Some of you have been so afraid of dying that you forgot to continue living.

Those who you think are "afraid" of covid (which really should be everyone given the way it has screwed the world) are exactly those who have come out of this the best. Those who haven't e.g. UK, US, Canada etc are the ones living in fear due to covid being allowed to run free. Vaccine reluctance and odd concerns that being made to protect yourself and others is some intolerable infringement to your "freedom" aren't logical. It is such a shame that vaccine refusal isn't just an individual thing as we could just let natural selection sort things out. No not entirely serious.
 

Cause or coincidence?

The data supplied by AstraZeneca shows there have been 37 reports of blood clots among the 17m people across Europe who have been given the vaccine.
But the key question that has to be asked is whether this is cause or coincidence? Would these clots have happened anyway?
Adverse events like this are monitored carefully, so regulators can assess if they are happening more than they should.
The 37 reports of clots are below the level you would expect. What is more, there is no strong biological explanation why the vaccine would cause a blood clot.
It is why the World Health Organization and UK drugs regulators have all said there is no evidence of a link.
Even the European Medicines Agency, which is looking into the reports, has suggested the vaccine should continue to be used given the risk Covid presents to health.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the decisions by individual nations to pause their rollouts have baffled experts.
Prof Adam Finn, a member of the WHO's working group on Covid vaccines, says stopping rollout in this way is "highly undesirable" and could undermine confidence in the vaccine, costing lives in the long-term.
"Making the right call in situations like this is not easy, but having a steady hand on the tiller is probably what is needed most."


From the BBC site.


It's funny that BBC posted that when they are one of the worst for scare mongering especially with vaccines etc, share all the news then "what is everyone worried about?" After it. They have been one of the worst for creating panics.
 
Some of the contraceptive pills cause blood clots and people don’t bat an eyelid.

All of the contraceptive pills actually. They tend to cause single clots in ‘classic’ locations. Deep veins of lower leg. Or the lung. One of the issues that they’re concerned about in Norway is that they’re experienced multiple clots in atypical locations. Combined with the thrombocytopenia it’s an unusual picture.

Confusingly, covid itself can cause this presentation. I’m hoping that’s what’s going on. A cluster of false negative covid tests. We do know it’s relatively common for HCWs to get infected immediately after getting vaccinated.
 
I'm going by this source that indicates phase 3 trials can take one to 4 years: https://www.antidote.me/blog/how-long-do-clinical-trial-phases-take
They take as long as it takes to get the funding, the clinicians, the number of trial volunteers and the case numbers to demonstrate efficacy.

They also provide baseline information on safety. In the case of vaccines, the overwhelming majority of safety issues are found in the first 14 days post vaccination. The trials collect data for at least 2 months before applying for "emergency use". By that stage, with the covid vaccines, the earliest volunteers had been fully vaccinated for around 6 months and the bulk of the P3 trialists had been vaccinated for three or more.

The fact is you could continue testing that same group of trialists for the next 5 years or 50 years and you won't find anything new.

What you can't guarantee from any kind of trial is what will happen when you move from 10 thousand people in a trial, to 10 million in a rollout. If there's a problem that's only seen in people with a particular gene, or taking a particular drug, or who catch some disease in the same week or whatever - you don't see it on trials. Even if you run them until the trialists die of old age, you're unlikely to see it, and if you do see it then you'll have seen it within a month or so of injection.

That's why they monitor the vaccines, and will keep monitoring the vaccines as they give them to more people.
 
All of the contraceptive pills actually. They tend to cause single clots in ‘classic’ locations. Deep veins of lower leg. Or the lung. One of the issues that they’re concerned about in Norway is that they’re experienced multiple clots in atypical locations. Combined with the thrombocytopenia it’s an unusual picture.

Confusingly, covid itself can cause this presentation. I’m hoping that’s what’s going on. A cluster of false negative covid tests. We do know it’s relatively common for HCWs to get infected immediately after getting vaccinated.
Yep, it's the Norwegian cluster that's striking. But it's so striking that I'm sure every regulator (and every haematoligist) will be digging back through their records to see if there's a pattern.

Hopefully that will make the process really quick. Certainly in the UK, I'm guessing every hospital will be looking through their records. Admittedly it may be like trying to see the wood for the trees in the UK, with the recent number of covid cases/deaths. I'm sure all the heparin/warfarin clinics will be looking really hard as well - given that heparin can also trigger these kind of symptoms and covid may have masked any low occurrence upturn in problems.
 
Germany pausing as seven cases of cerebral vein thrombosis had been reported. Sweden pausing as a precaution.
 
Yep, it's the Norwegian cluster that's striking. But it's so striking that I'm sure every regulator (and every haematoligist) will be digging back through their records to see if there's a pattern.

Hopefully that will make the process really quick. Certainly in the UK, I'm guessing every hospital will be looking through their records. Admittedly it may be like trying to see the wood for the trees in the UK, with the recent number of covid cases/deaths. I'm sure all the heparin/warfarin clinics will be looking really hard as well - given that heparin can also trigger these kind of symptoms and covid may have masked any low occurrence upturn in problems.

For me I don't think its necessarily a cluster in terms of number but close proximity of events to each other temporally thats of clinical interest/worry.

Thrombophilia screens shouldn't be too difficult. The question comes is if these events - like a lot of what's seen in those clinics is what would usually be classified as unprovoked - a significant number from what i usually see in my patients who I monitor anti-coagulants on, and whether that would be then attributed to the vaccines. It will be tricky.

Reassuring though that this hasn't been seen elsewhere, or in bigger numbers even amongst that cluster of norway patients.
 
Ronaldo's Mum Eh is another one in the same boat.

You seem to be under the impression that the slightest questioning of a vaccine equals a fervent anti vaccination stance.

There is something worth looking at with the AZ vaccine. Twelve countries don't pause a desperately needed rollout for no reason, and they have access to data none of us here do.


For me I don't think its necessarily a cluster in terms of number but close proximity of events to each other temporally thats of clinical interest/worry.

Thrombophilia screens shouldn't be too difficult. The question comes is if these events - like a lot of what's seen in those clinics is what would usually be classified as unprovoked - a significant number from what i usually see in my patients who I monitor anti-coagulants on, and whether that would be then attributed to the vaccines. It will be tricky.

Reassuring though that this hasn't been seen elsewhere, or in bigger numbers even amongst that cluster of norway patients.

There are now 7 cases in Germany too, all reasonably young females.

From France:
"The warning signs" about the AstraZeneca vaccine "are significant, more for the type of clinical and biological manifestations than for the number, which remains low compared to the number of people vaccinated. The onset of thrombosis with coagulation abnormalities, which we are not used to seeing in classic pulmonary embolisms, has been observed in some people."

Considering this has all happened very recently and is linked to specific batches it might point to a problem in the supply chain. That's why Italy put a stop on it, in case it's a recurring problem.
 
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“The decision by Germany, France and Italy to suspend AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots after several countries reported possible serious side-effects is a “political one”, the director general of Italy’s medicines authority AIFA said on Tuesday.

“We got to the point of a suspension because several European countries, including Germany and France, preferred to interrupt vaccinations... to put them on hold in order to carry out checks. The choice is a political one,” Nicola Magrini told daily la Repubblica in an interview.

Magrini said that the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and that the benefit to risk ratio of the jab is “widely positive”.”

My personal opinion is to delay vaccinations at a time when cases are rising across mainland Europe again is a bit bonkers. It’s only going to add to the hesitancy they’ve already caused about AZ when they inevitably give it the okay again on Thursday. Thankfully we didn’t see any more DNAs/cancellations than usual yesterday. Probably the only time the anti-EU sentiment within the older age group has been a positive :lol:
 
“The decision by Germany, France and Italy to suspend AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots after several countries reported possible serious side-effects is a “political one”, the director general of Italy’s medicines authority AIFA said on Tuesday.

“We got to the point of a suspension because several European countries, including Germany and France, preferred to interrupt vaccinations... to put them on hold in order to carry out checks. The choice is a political one,” Nicola Magrini told daily la Repubblica in an interview.

Magrini said that the AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and that the benefit to risk ratio of the jab is “widely positive”.”

My personal opinion is to delay vaccinations at a time when cases are rising across mainland Europe again is a bit bonkers. It’s only going to add to the hesitancy they’ve already caused about AZ when they inevitably give it the okay again on Thursday. Thankfully we didn’t see any more DNAs/cancellations than usual yesterday. Probably the only time the anti-EU sentiment within the older age group has been a positive :lol:

That’s an utterly bizarre comment coming from the director of the agency who made that decision. If he genuinely believes the pause in other countries was politically motivated then why doesn’t he have the bollox to take a different stance in Italy?
 
This thread is getting a bit ugly now. This has been a great source for me to read about the newest updates & articles etc so would be nice if the vaccine anti vaxx stuff is nipped in the bud.
 
For what it's worth. Every vaccine will have incompatibility issues, a tiny percentage would be affected you can bet. Be it minor alergies to unfortunate death.

But when a very peculiar cause of death (blood clot) is reported in an alarming number then something must have gone wrong. If say 10 died from blood clot, what's to say 1000 have the same issue but didnt die or didnt have it severe enough to be detected.

Better safe than sorry. Too many similar cases in short time.

And yes, some politicians will milk it, some paper would use it as slight jab at others but the issue is real.
 
Doesnt the platelet count go down naturally with age? If it is an issue.. (IF), could it be something that affects the slightly younger age group(40-60) more than the older ones?
Because a lot of the reports I am seeing are mentioning the people affected are younger..
 
Doesnt the platelet count go down naturally with age? If it is an issue.. (IF), could it be something that affects the slightly younger age group(40-60) more than the older ones?
Because a lot of the reports I am seeing are mentioning the people affected are younger..

I think the focus in on the younger cases because being hospitalised by unexpected medical illnesses is much less likely for young people.

I’m starting to think there’s a momentum building here which is moving away from sensible pharmacovigilance towards being overly influenced by decisions in other countries. The Norwegian cluster did sound concerning but this seems to be getting mixed in with other, much less worrying, incidents.

As I’ve said a few times, being this cautious should reassure people that whatever vaccine they are eventually offered has been carefully monitored and is extremely safe. Unfortunately, it carries a risk of having the exact opposite effect.

Thankfully, we haven’t yet seen any similar concerns about any of the other vaccines. If we get similar pauses for all the vaccines that would be an absolute nightmare.
 
You seem to be under the impression that the slightest questioning of a vaccine equals a fervent anti vaccination stance.

There is something worth looking at with the AZ vaccine. Twelve countries don't pause a desperately needed rollout for no reason, and they have access to data none of us here do.




There are now 7 cases in Germany too, all reasonably young females.

From France:
"The warning signs" about the AstraZeneca vaccine "are significant, more for the type of clinical and biological manifestations than for the number, which remains low compared to the number of people vaccinated. The onset of thrombosis with coagulation abnormalities, which we are not used to seeing in classic pulmonary embolisms, has been observed in some people."

Considering this has all happened very recently and is linked to specific batches it might point to a problem in the supply chain. That's why Italy put a stop on it, in case it's a recurring problem.

A handful of countries have paused but the evidence seems to be MIA

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...dical-officer-says?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
 
A handful of countries have paused but the evidence seems to be MIA

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...dical-officer-says?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Not a single one of those countries has said that these events are causally related to the vaccine. So the comments from the Aussie regulator are kind of redundant. The issue here isn’t a lack of evidence, it’s the need to thoroughly investigate a potential safety signal before coming to a definitive conclusion. Which is what’s happening.
 
Thrombophilia screens shouldn't be too difficult. The question comes is if these events - like a lot of what's seen in those clinics is what would usually be classified as unprovoked - a significant number from what i usually see in my patients who I monitor anti-coagulants on, and whether that would be then attributed to the vaccines. It will be tricky.
One thing about the warfarin clinic groups is that they are under routine surveillance anyway, albeit not directly for platelets. It did strike me that, when looking at a large number of people, there may be clues if dosage changes are bigger/more frequent than normal. Probably just a random idea on my part, and even if there was something there, it might have nothing to tell us about the broader picture of sudden severe cases - particularly those Norwegian ones.
 
One thing about the warfarin clinic groups is that they are under routine surveillance anyway, albeit not directly for platelets. It did strike me that, when looking at a large number of people, there may be clues if dosage changes are bigger/more frequent than normal. Probably just a random idea on my part, and even if there was something there, it might have nothing to tell us about the broader picture of sudden severe cases - particularly those Norwegian ones.

It’s a clever idea but I’m fairly sure warfarin works on a completely different coagulation pathway!

The fact these issues relate to coagulation is presumably one of the reasons they’re being taken very seriously. We know for a fact that the virus can play merry hell with our coag pathways. So it’s not impossible that a vaccine which stimulates an immune response to viral components could have similar consequences.

Ultimately, though, if these serious incidents are are as rare as it seems and it really is just a coincidence that there seems to have been clusters in some countries then we shouldn’t be too worried.
 
One thing about the warfarin clinic groups is that they are under routine surveillance anyway, albeit not directly for platelets. It did strike me that, when looking at a large number of people, there may be clues if dosage changes are bigger/more frequent than normal. Probably just a random idea on my part, and even if there was something there, it might have nothing to tell us about the broader picture of sudden severe cases - particularly those Norwegian ones.

That's a good shout. Although there's been a big change now to switch to the novel anticoagulants but INR derangement with regards to warfarin and whether there's a link post-vaccine if you did a large enough survey might be able to spot a trend - or rule one out.

I did a vascular surgery rotation once and I remember how much of a ball ache it was to investigate atypical coagulopathies. From CT scans, echocardiograms, biochem, genetic testing and immunochemistry that took ages to come back and interpret. Wouldn't surprise me if regulators who are more concerned about that cluster/cohort want to give themselves more time to look into it if they are worried enough, especially in norway.
 
Thankfully, we haven’t yet seen any similar concerns about any of the other vaccines. If we get similar pauses for all the vaccines that would be an absolute nightmare.
In the UK they've had reports of Thrombocytopenia on the Pfizer vaccine as well, including one death. That's not to say either of the UK deaths (one AZ or one Pfizer) was actually caused or triggered by the vaccine, just that is in the possible adverse report list.

That's based on the data accumulated until the end of February, with roughly 20m first doses dispensed - about half of each type.
 
Not a single one of those countries has said that these events are causally related to the vaccine. So the comments from the Aussie regulator are kind of redundant. The issue here isn’t a lack of evidence, it’s the need to thoroughly investigate a potential safety signal before coming to a definitive conclusion. Which is what’s happening.

True although the evidence they are examining seems scant at best. Under normal circumstances would this trigger a pause?
 
Thinking about it from another angle, we know that people can get severe and unexpected reactions to any vaccine. I'm sure the Covid ones won't be any different.

Hundreds of thousands of people are all receiving the Covid vaccine at the same time, in many different countries, so these unexpected and rare reactions are coming up in small numbers, but over a short period of time and are therefore highly visible.

People do need to be aware that anyone can have a bad reaction to a vaccine. The neurologist I saw recently said to me that it's impossible to predict who those people might be, and the fact that you've had a bad reaction to one vaccine doesn't make you more likely to have one with a different vaccine. I assume the reverse also applies.
 
It’s a clever idea but I’m fairly sure warfarin works on a completely different coagulation pathway!

The fact these issues relate to coagulation is presumably one of the reasons they’re being taken very seriously. We know for a fact that the virus can play merry hell with our coag pathways. So it’s not impossible that a vaccine which stimulates an immune response to viral components could have similar consequences.

Ultimately, though, if these serious incidents are are as rare as it seems and it really is just a coincidence that there seems to have been clusters in some countries then we shouldn’t be too worried.
It was just a musing.

There's a history of thrombosis in my family. It killed my dad in his 70s, and my sister in her 50s, having almost killed her (seemingly out of the blue) in her early 40s. My brother needed femoral artery surgery for it.

My sister in law's INR changed for the first time in over a year, a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks after her jab. It's one of those stories that has caught my attention, and my random thoughts tend to follow...
 
True although the evidence they are examining seems scant at best. Under normal circumstances would this trigger a pause?

Really hard to know as these are far from normal circumstances! Usually a pause is much more problematic than this because you have people taking the medicine already. Stopping/switching can have all sorts of negative consequences. It’s far from unusual to have a medicine referred to the PRAC because of new safety concerns and, as I said earlier, the cluster we’re discussing here definitely merits referral. Usually the advice would be to keep taking the medicine and contact your HCP if any concerns. This seems to happen almost once a year with various contraceptive pills (which have long been associated with blood clots)

I think the reason for a pause is because there’s theoretically not much downside in delaying new vaccinations by a week or so. Especially in the younger cohorts that this vaccine is currently being reserved for. Although I also think there are unintended consequences re vaccine hesitancy that haven’t been fully thought through. It’s a tough one though. To keep on injecting people with a vaccine that is having an urgent safety review opens them up to a load of criticism as well.
 
It was just a musing.

There's a history of thrombosis in my family. It killed my dad in his 70s, and my sister in her 50s, having almost killed her (seemingly out of the blue) in her early 40s. My brother needed femoral artery surgery for it.

My sister in law's INR changed for the first time in over a year, a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks after her jab. It's one of those stories that has caught my attention, and my random thoughts tend to follow...

Musing is good! And I don’t think anyone fully understands exactly what part of the coag pathway the virus messes with. Low platelets does affect a different pathway to warfarin (I think?) but there could well be more to these cases than low platelets. So some sort of survey of the INR (or dose of warfarin) of everyone vaccinated would actually be quite clever.
 
going to risk being called an anti vaxxer and a selfish prick! careful with your words.
I’m not anti-vax, nor am I selfish. I just think this is being rushed & want to wait & research a bit before putting something in my body. I would argue the selfish ones are the people trying to pressure unsure people into getting it right away. WHO are now reviewing the Oxford vaccine which was “perfectly safe” less than a week ago. This is not like an MMR jab, there is new information all the time. If people want to call me “anti vax” I really couldn’t give a shit. We get one body, of course I’m careful about what I put into mine. Others should be the same. I’m not having a go at anyone for taking it without asking questions, which to me is stupid, because I believe in each to their own. If people wanna take it, great, if people don’t wanna take it, great. Lets make our own choices & not bully people who disagree.
 
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This thread is getting a bit ugly now. This has been a great source for me to read about the newest updates & articles etc so would be nice if the vaccine anti vaxx stuff is nipped in the bud.


Really? I'm finding it to be far more informative than anything I'm seeing in the papers.
 
Really hard to know as these are far from normal circumstances! Usually a pause is much more problematic than this because you have people taking the medicine already. Stopping/switching can have all sorts of negative consequences. It’s far from unusual to have a medicine referred to the PRAC because of new safety concerns and, as I said earlier, the cluster we’re discussing here definitely merits referral. Usually the advice would be to keep taking the medicine and contact your HCP if any concerns.

I think the reason for a pause is because there’s theoretically not much downside in delaying new vaccinations by a week or so. Especially in the younger cohorts that this vaccine is currently being reserved for. Although I also think there are unintended consequences re vaccine hesitancy that haven’t been fully thought through. It’s a tough one though. To keep on injecting people with a vaccine that is having an urgent safety review opens them up to a load of criticism as well.

Agreed. And normally a small pause for evaluation wouldn't even be noticed by the general public.
 
This thread is getting a bit ugly now. This has been a great source for me to read about the newest updates & articles etc so would be nice if the vaccine anti vaxx stuff is nipped in the bud.

Anti-vax nutbaggery won't be tolerated. I think letting less severe forms being challenged is informative in of itself.
 
Thinking about it from another angle, we know that people can get severe and unexpected reactions to any vaccine. I'm sure the Covid ones won't be any different.

Hundreds of thousands of people are all receiving the Covid vaccine at the same time, in many different countries, so these unexpected and rare reactions are coming up in small numbers, but over a short period of time and are therefore highly visible.

People do need to be aware that anyone can have a bad reaction to a vaccine. The neurologist I saw recently said to me that it's impossible to predict who those people might be, and the fact that you've had a bad reaction to one vaccine doesn't make you more likely to have one with a different vaccine. I assume the reverse also applies.
This isn't completely true. Quite a portion of anaphylaxis after vaccination is due to hypersensitivity reactions towards PEG or polysorbate, which are common additives in vaccines. If one has a history of adverse reaction after vaccination, he should figure out the cause and check if the allergen is present in the vaccine he's going to take.
 
Really? I'm finding it to be far more informative than anything I'm seeing in the papers.


That's what I meant in terms of information provided . I don't really check other news sources . Just that there seems to be more personal arguments & agendas coming in now
 
This isn't completely true. Quite a portion of anaphylaxis after vaccination is due to hypersensitivity reactions towards PEG or polysorbate, which are common additives in vaccines. If one has a history of adverse reaction after vaccination, he should figure out the cause and check if the allergen is present in the vaccine he's going to take.
I appreciate that - I was seeing him about autoimmune reactions, rather than allergic ones. The problem with the former type of reaction is that the cause seems to be unknown. My sister with many allergies has been advised by her endocrinologist to have the AZ jab. It's a bit of a lottery and we just all have to hope for the best!
 
This is fecking mental, thousands of people are dying every single day and they are putting thousands more at risk for the sake of 37 possible reactions in 17,000,000 cases. It's minuscule compared to the risk of dying from Coronavirus. I am not sure what the death rate from Coronavirus, but half a percent of 17,000,000 is 85,000. Kind of puts in perspective, doesn't it? Take the fecking vaccine, it's a no brainer.

Can't help thinking there is a political angle on this to do with Brexit.
 
EMA press conference going on right now. EMA head Emer Cooke saying they believe Astra Zeneca is absolutely safe. Says they're investigating if there might have been a single bad batch there somewhere.
 
Not a single one of those countries has said that these events are causally related to the vaccine. So the comments from the Aussie regulator are kind of redundant. The issue here isn’t a lack of evidence, it’s the need to thoroughly investigate a potential safety signal before coming to a definitive conclusion. Which is what’s happening.

Just watched the science editor on ITV news ( Tom Clarke) state that there is no difference in case numbers between AZ and Pfizer vaccines which is what you would expect if the cases had no relationship to the vaccine. Should we halt the roll out of Pfizer too?

We are getting close to the original anti-vax panic over autism now. Once you put this in the arms of millions of people there are going to be cases where people get ill afterwards. Its meaningless information without context. Halting the roll out of vaccines which are safe and have been proven to be safe because of this looks like an over reaction or politically motivated bollocks.

I had the AZ vaccine 10 days ago and can't wait to get the second jab and start to get back to normality. I just hope the EU vacillation does not stop or delay the UK from reaching vaccinated herd immunity through its fear mongering.