‘Vaccines are incredibly safe’
Borough: New report assessed seven million doses
The Royal Borough’s cabinet member for health has urged people to get vaccinated when it is their turn after the UK regulator found the COVID-19 vaccines were extremely safe.
The data published on Friday by the Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) assessed safety reports from seven million doses of vaccines administered from December 9 to January 24.
It found there were only 22,820 reports of side effects, which accounts to a rate of three in 1,000 doses and most of the side effects reported were a sore arm and a mild ‘flu-like’ symptom.
Most of the reports were from people who had the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the Astra Zeneca-Oxford vaccine began later.
Councillor Stuart Carroll (Con, Boyn Hill) said: “This was a huge sample size and the conclusion
was vaccines are incredibly safe. There were no safety alarm bells.
“The really important message is, if you did have concerns on the safety of vaccines, this does confirm there is nothing to worry about.”
He said the NHS were now in the process of ‘mopping up’ any over 70s who have not yet been contacted and have allowed this age group to book an appointment for a vaccine.
He said: “What the NHS wants to do now is to make sure if anybody has been missed out, or didn’t make initial contact then they do that now.
“It’s a bit like a mop-up mechanism and a contingency to ensure we cast the net as far and wide as possible to make sure nobody is missed.
“If whatever the reason someone wasn’t contacted or their GP has not had the correct details, now is the time to proactively book an appointment and make sure you get the vaccine.”
This service is only available for those who are over 70.
Visit www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronaviruscovid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/bookcoronavirus-vaccination to book an appointment.