Under-30s offered alternative to AstraZeneca vaccine

PEOPLE aged under-30 in the UK are to be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

People aged 18 to 29 will be offered the Pfizer, Moderna or another jab where available.

However, if the AstraZeneca vaccine is the only one available in their area, people will still be offered that jab – regardless of their age.

The AstraZeneca jab rollout is not being halted in the UK. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) insisted the benefits of the jab still outweigh the risks – and ministers and scientists urged Brits to continue getting their jab.

The UK’s medical regulator unveiled new advice to government after 79 cases of rare blood clots were reported out of more than 20 million doses of the jab, with 19 deaths. That is up from 30 cases and seven deaths out of 18.1 million doses a week ago.

While the benefits outweigh the risks in older adults, who are far more likely than younger people to die of Covid, the MHRA has been probing whether the balance of risk could be different in younger adults.

The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) announced the new “clinical preference” for under-30s in a press conference at the Department of Health.

Boris Johnson made clear he would accept any change to official guidance – but insisted it would not delay the roadmap out of England’s lockdown.

During a visit to Cornwall, the Prime Minister told broadcasters: “I don’t think anything that I have seen leads me to suppose that we will have to change the road map or deviate from the road map in any way.”

Mr Johnson insisted the Government believes the AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe”, saying: “It’s pretty clear that the decline in the number of deaths, the decline in the number of hospitalisations is being fuelled, is being assisted, the steepness of that decline is being helped by the roll-out of the vaccines, so it’s very important for everybody to continue to get your second jab when you’re asked to come forward for your turn.”

Officials stressed the change in guidance was not unlike new approaches to the annual flu vaccine as side-effects emerge. But yesterday’s press conference came after growing unease about a possible link between the AstraZeneca jab, of which the UK has ordered 100 million doses, and extremely rare blood clots. Last night a trial of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in children was paused while regulators investigate, out of “exceptional caution”.

The European Medicines Agency today officially listed blood clots as a rare side-effect of the AstraZeneca jab.

A review by the EMA’s safety committee concluded “unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects”.

But the EMA declared the benefits still outweighed the risks, with Covid19 still killing thousands of people per day.