France reports three new cases of thrombosis, more deaths after AstraZeneca jabs

I personally think these &quot;news reporting&quot; style articles aren&#x27;t all that helpful in understanding the issues. Context matters a lot. Here&#x27;s an article I strongly recommend:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;health&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2021&#x2F;03&#x2F;astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clot-issue-wont-go-away&#x2F;618451&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&#x2F;health&#x2F;archive&#x2F;2021&#x2F;03&#x2F;astrazene...</a><p>This is not a simple issue. The implications are serious in Europe in the short and medium term, as they&#x27;re quite far behind in vaccinations compared to the US and UK. Then the implications for global health equity are even more worrisome.

I am dubious that these incidents are anything but statistical noise.<p>But.<p>This AstraZeneca trial has been a bit of a gong show.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-health-coronavirus-vaccine-oxford-exc&#x2F;exclusive-oxford-kept-covid-19-vaccine-trial-volunteers-in-dark-about-dosing-error-letter-shows-idUSKBN2A1263" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reuters.com&#x2F;article&#x2F;us-health-coronavirus-vaccin...</a><p><i>“About 1,500 of the initial volunteers in a late-stage clinical trial of the Oxford&#x2F;AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were given the wrong dose, but weren’t informed that a mistake had been made after the blunder was discovered”</i><p>They’ve had a series of data issues, and they have not be super transparent about them. Is it safe? I think so, given the results from the deployment we’ve seen, but they didn’t inspire perfect confidence as they rolled this out.

&quot;In total, 30 people out of 18 million vaccinated by 24 March had these clots. [in the UK]&quot;<p>&quot;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.&quot;[0]<p>So currently a one in half a million chance of being effected. For comparison 1 in 1000 women per year taking the contraceptive pill have a chance of a blood clot. Obviously this is a new drug and should be scrutinised, better understood, and if possible fixed - but at what point do we consider the daily articles scaremongering by people with an agenda?<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;health-56620646" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;health-56620646</a>

What is so different with AstraZeneca? Should we expect similar side effects with other vaccines?

If this leads to the rich world refusing the AZ vaccine, and it all ends up being used in Brazil, that would actually be great!

In small countries that have the pandemic under control like Norway there are worries that AZ could kill more people in the affected age ranges than the virus has done so far.

A handful of blood clots from millions of vaccinations ...<p>or<p>10&#x27;s of thousands of deaths out of millions of covid infections.<p>or<p>forever lockdown.<p>The choices are grim but after a year of lockdown... I&#x27;m worried about what happens in the next elections.

That article is not very helpful is it. Explicitly, i believe knowingly, excludes information.<p>For example<p>&gt; In a separate development, the UK medical regulator said on Saturday that out of 30 people who suffered blood clots after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, seven have died.<p>Excluding that that population sample is in the region of 19 million people who have received at least one dose of ChAdOx in the UK and the incidence of the clot is likely lower than the incidence rate in the population in general, as I understand it.