30 rare blood clots after 18MILLION Oxford jabs
But experts say the benefits of vaccination far ‘outweigh risks’
ANOTHER 25 cases of a rare blood clotting disorder in patients given the Oxford jab has been confirmed by the UK medicines regulator.
It takes the nationwide total to 30 out of the 18.1million doses administered so far – equal to around one in every 600,000 recipients.
Seven of the cases were fatal, said the Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory Agency (MHrA).
Experts described the events as ‘extremely rare’ and insisted taking the vaccine remained ‘by far the safest choice’ if seeking to minimise harm.
The MHrA, European Medicines Agency (EMA) and World Health Organisation said the jab was safe. But a rare combination of blood-related symptoms in a small number of people has led some governments to take a cautious approach.
The UK and Austria have imposed no restrictions but France, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Germany have recommended that younger people avoid the shot. It remains suspended in Norway and Denmark.
yesterday the Netherlands halted the jab for those aged under 60 after reports of rare blood clots following vaccination.
Dutch agency Lareb, which tracks medication side effects, said it had received five reports of extensive thrombosis with low platelet counts after vaccinations with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, including in a woman who died.
Thrombosis is the formation of a clot in a blood vessel and platelets help stop bleeding.
It follows Germany’s decision to halt use of the jab in under-60s.
The main condition causing alarm is cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), where potentially fatal clots form in the veins that run from the brain. This has been combined with thrombocytopenia, where a patient has abnormally low levels of platelets resulting in heavy bleeding.
An MHrA report on Thursday said: ‘Up to and including 24 March, we have received 22 reports of CVST and 8 reports of other thrombosis events with low platelets, out of a total of 18.1million doses of Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca. There were no reports for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.’ It added that people should continue to get the jab as the benefits ‘outweigh any risks’.
And there have been seven fatal clots, according to the MHrA.
‘Keep an open mind on the cause’
In Norway, health officials have reported at least six cases of CVST and thrombocytopenia among 120,000 recipients of the jab, four of whom died. In Germany, 31 cases have been reported after 2.7million vaccinations. Nine of them have died. There are around five to 15 cases of CVST per one million people each year. Professor David Werring, of University College London, said it was not clear if the risk of CVST after the jab was any higher than the expected incidence.
The EMA said it has not identified a link between the blood clots and specific risk factors ‘including age, gender or previous history’.
Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, said on Thursday that a link between the vaccine and CVST remained ‘unproven’.
He added: ‘We should keep an open mind on that and assume it may well be until proven otherwise.’ He also indicated the policy on vaccinating youngsters could change if new evidence emerges.
He told a royal Society of Medicine
online seminar: ‘The risk-benefit is wildly in favour of vaccination if you’re let’s say an 85-year-old diabetic with liver failure. The closer you get to someone who’s right down at 20 and otherwise blameless in their health, the more you have to think through these really very rare side effects – that are severe – because the risk-benefits might get closer to parity.’
Professor Adam Finn, of the government’s vaccine advisory committee, said: ‘receiving the vaccine is by far the safest choice in terms of minimising individual risk of serious illness or death.’
Professor Werring said if a person had a ‘severe’ headache after a jab ‘with symptoms of stroke, seizures, drowsiness or confusion then CVST needs to be considered’.