The MHRA has today announced that people under the age of 30 in the UK will be offered the Pfizer or new Moderna vaccine going forward rather than the AstraZeneca vaccine.
I know this will worry some of you. All vaccines and indeed medicines have side effects, and the chances of someone developing a blood clot having had the AstraZeneca jab remains very small: 4 in 1 million.
To set this in context, a study in the British Medical Journal in 2015 found 6 in 10,000 women who are taking the combined birth control pill levonorgestrel will develop a blood clot (this combined pill had the lowest incidence of blood clots that they examined). This is not to diminish the risk, but to set out that what we consider everyday medicines, also carry risks.
The guidance remains that anyone who has already received their first AstraZeneca vaccine should receive a second dose of AstraZeneca, regardless of their age, except for the small number of people who experienced blood clots with low platelet counts from their first vaccination.
I had the AstraZeneca vaccine for my first vaccine, and when invited, I will book to have it for my second dose.
More than 37 million jabs overall have already been administered, the vaccination programme is saving lives – so far Public Health England analysis shows at least 6,100 deaths in those aged 70 and older in England have been prevented up to the end of February.
If you have a specific concern regarding you and your vaccine, please email me at [email protected]
