HOW RARE IS A LIFE-THREATENING REACTION?

ROUGHLY one in ten people who have any of the Covid-19 vaccines will experience temporary, mild side effects, such as a sore arm, flu-like symptoms and a rapid heartbeat, according to the Government’s drug watchdog, the MHRA.

More severe side effects, such as abdominal pain, swollen glands, excessive sweating and skin rashes, are thought to affect about one in 100 people.

Serious, potentially lifethreatening complications – including blood clots – affect about seven in every million people who have the AstraZeneca jab, according to a study of 30million people published in the British Medical Journal in August.

And vaccine-related death has been confirmed in only 24 out of almost 50million Britons who have had two jabs, according to data obtained from death certificates by the Office For National Statistics.

This puts the risk of death from the vaccine at lower than 0.0001 per cent.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) halted the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people under 30 in April last year, following reports of blood clots across Europe. And very few AstraZeneca boosters have been administered after studies showed that alternative jabs – Pfizer and Moderna – were more effective as a third dose.

Some reports estimate that the risk of blood clots and death from the Covid vaccines is higher than officially admitted, but these tend to be based on figures from patients’ accounts logged with the Government’s Yellow Card Scheme.

This programme allows the public to report a health problem they believe is linked to a vaccine or drug.

However, these are not verified by medical records or doctors, so it cannot be proven that the problem was caused by the jab.