Vaccine clot risk ‘same as long-haul flight’

THE HEALTH Secretary and several chief scientists are seeking to maintain public confidence in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine after regulators pointed to a one in a million chance of dying from a rare blood clot.

Matt Hancock said everyone should take a vaccine when their time comes, and the risk of experiencing a brain clot was the same as “taking a long-haul flight”.

He urged the under-30s, who will be offered an alternative vaccine to AstraZeneca, to take a jab to protect loved ones and avoid the risk of long Covid, adding there were was “more than enough” Moderna and Pfizer for this age range.

In a round of broadcast interviews, Mr Hancock said vaccines are clearly breaking the link between Covid cases and deaths in the UK and were saving “thousands of lives”.

He was backed by a Huddersfield pharmacist whose brother died of a blood clot doctors said was probably caused by his Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr Alison Astles, BBC News, says she “strongly believed” people should continue to have the jab.

Solicitor Neil Astles, 59, died on Sunday after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 17.

Speaking to the BBC News channel, she said: “Despite what has happened to Neil and the impact on our family, I still strongly believe that people should go ahead and have the vaccine.

“If you’ve had one dose, go ahead and have your second. If you haven’t had your dose yet make sure that you do. “Because, overall, we will save more lives by people having the vaccine than not.

“The risk of a clot is very, very small and my brother was extraordinarily unlucky.”

She said that about a week after her brother had the vaccine he began to have headaches and nausea. He was taken to the emergency department of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Friday night where doctors found a “huge blood clot” and he died on Sunday.

Dr Astles, who is subject leader for pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield, said she was told by clinicians at the hospital they were 99.9 per cent sure the clot was due to the vaccine.

She said: “The human being, the sister in me, still feels absolutely furious and very angry that this has happened to my brother.”

Dr Astles said her brother’s cause of death had yet to be officially recorded by the coroner.