Warning issued after Astrazeneca jab death
Alex Reid, 28, died of a blood clot months after he received Oxford vaccine owing to medical blunder
A CORONER has issued an official warning over the death of a healthy young man wrongly given the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine because of a medical blunder.
Alex Reid, 28, was invited to have his jab in March 2021 because of an error in his GP records that had wrongly classified him as morbidly obese. As a result he was categorised as a vulnerable adult and vaccinated early, a month before official advice was issued saying that the under-30s should not receive the Astrazeneca vaccine because of the risk of blood clots. Mr Reid died of a blood clot three months later after receiving his second dose.
Oliver Longstaff, the area coroner for West Yorkshire, said in a Prevention of Future Deaths report that if the data had been accurate Mr Reid would not have died. The inquest was told that Mr Reid was identified as “vulnerable” due to an “incorrect BMI” recorded in his GP records from February 2004, when he was aged 11.
“The mistake was due to the relevant clinician recording Alex’s height as 145cm and his weight as 145kg, giving a BMI of 68.97 for an 11-year-old boy whose previously recorded BMI aged nine had been 14.88,” Mr Longstaff said.
As a result, Mr Reid, an operations controller from Leeds, “was invited to receive his Covid vaccination earlier than his age alone would have entitled him to do so”. On March 21 2021, Mr Reid was given his first dose of the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccine.
Mr Longstaff said: “When Alex was invited to receive his vaccination early, he did not understand why, and no one was able to tell him.”
One month later, official advice was issued that stated people under the age of 30 “should not receive the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccination as their first” dose. The Government’s vaccine advisers had recommended that recipients under 30 should receive alternatives to Astrazeneca because of the risk of blood clots. In May, Mr Reid received his second dose. He was given the Astrazeneca vaccine as he had already had it as his first dose.
On June 29 in Leeds General Infirmary, Mr Reid died of a blood clot on the brain.
The coroner recorded the cause of death as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, a new condition linked to the Astrazeneca vaccine that is suspected of causing 81 deaths in the UK and hundreds more serious disabilities.
Mr Longstaff recorded a narrative conclusion “reflecting Alex’s death being linked to his having received the Oxford-astrazeneca vaccination against Covid-19”.
The coroner said: “If the obviously erroneous BMI had not been recorded or had been challenged at the point of entry by the relevant IT system, Alex would not have been classed as vulnerable, would not have been offered a vaccine before guidance was published that the under 30s should not receive the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine, and would not have died when he did.”
Writing to the national chief clinical information officer and chief information officer of NHS England, Mr Longstaff said: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you or your organisation have the power to take such action.”
Each organisation has 56 days to respond to his recommendations. Mr Longstaff ’s warning comes after Astrazeneca admitted for the first time in court documents that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side-effect of blood clots with low blood platelet count.
Mr Reid’s parents have previously told The Telegraph of their distress. They said their “happy, healthy, precious and beloved” son’s death was “unacceptable, immoral and fundamentally wrong” and accused Astrazeneca and the Government of ignoring “the small number” of people who died or were seriously affected as a result of the blood clots in order to quickly roll out the vaccine during the pandemic.
‘Action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action’