No need for Astrazeneca panic, says health ministry

THE Ministry of Health says there are no cases reported in Jamaica of potentially deadly blood clots as a side effect of the Astrazeneca vaccine which was widely used across the island in the battle against COVID-19.

Astrazeneca recently admitted that its vaccine can, in rare cases, lead to a side effect known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia (TTS), whereby a person can suffer blood clots and also have a low platelet count.

Soon after this admission, the British firm announced it was withdrawing the vaccine globally.

This sparked concerns locally about the possible impact on the scores of Jamaicans who took the Astrazeneca vaccine during the pandemic.

But at a post-cabinet media briefing on Wednesday, Jamaica’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-mckenzie said the health ministry stopped using the Astrazeneca vaccine in July 2022 and it is unlikely that anyone who took it will now develop the potentially fatal blood clotting.

“The side effects that persons are concerned about tend to happen between three days and three months, so some persons are wondering, ‘If I had received Astrazeneca then, in 2021 and early 2022, am I the possibility of these side effects?’ And the answer is no,” said Bisasor-mckenzie as she pointed out that the health ministry continues to collect information on people who think they may have suffered side effects from the vaccine.

“The vaccine had gone through various studies and had proven to be highly effective, specifically in terms of reducing serious illnesses as well as reducing death,” added Bisasormckenzie, who noted that more the three-billion doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine were produced worldwide and distributed.

She pointed out that all medications could have side effects but that the rare side effect of blood clots was not found at the time of the clinical tests.

Bisasor-mckenzie told the media briefing that by the second quarter of 2021 Jamaica’s health authorities were alerted that the Astrazeneca vaccine could have a side effect of blood clots but “this complication is extremely rare, occurring in about two per 100,000 persons where there is an association for the formation of clots, and within that group of persons who can have this effect, then, of course, you will have a small percentage of persons who will have serious outcomes.

According to Bisasor-mckenzie, the Jamaican authorities had to weigh the benefits against the risks in administering the Astrazeneca vaccine.

“At the time Astrazeneca was a main tool in what we had to respond to COVID…AND so the benefits far outweighed the risks that were there of these extremely rare events.”

In supporting the CMO, Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton told the media briefing that Jamaica used only COVID-19 vaccines that were subject to very stringent validation.

“We were comfortable with the risks that would normally be applied based on that validation,” said Tufton as he pointed out that many countries, including Jamaica, struggled to access vaccines at the height of the pandemic as these were in short supply.

“As the CMO said, the vaccine was known to come with side effects in a very small percentage of times and that those side effects would be most noted within three months of taking the vaccine…and there are no reports to date of any cases in Jamaica of persons suffering that rare side effect,” declared Tufton.

“And those who would have taken [the Astrazeneca vaccine] would be highly unlikely, if not impossible, to have that side effect now, years after taking the vaccine,” added Tufton.

Astrazeneca announced recently that is has started the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine but argued that this was due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” that target new variants of the virus.

In a statement, Astrazeneca said the decision was made because there is now a variety of newer vaccines available that have been adapted to target COVID-19 variants.

“This had led to a decline in demand for the Astrazeneca vaccine, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied,” said the company, which is facing a number of lawsuits related to illness and deaths believed to be linked to the vaccine.