Most Britons under 40 will be offered alternatives to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to blood clot links, according to new advice issued by health technocrats.
Britain’s medicines regulator has recorded 242 clotting cases and 49 deaths out of 28.5 million AstraZeneca doses administered to people in the United Kingdom, according to the BBC — although the broadcaster indicates that the risk increases as the age of the vaccinated decreases:
The risk of a clot is roughly one in 100,000 for people in their 40s, but rises to one in 60,000 for people in their 30s. Two in a million people in their 40s died rising to four per million people in their 30s.
“The balance of benefits and risks is very favourable for older people, but is more finely balanced for younger people,” admitted Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) chief executive Dr June Raine.
British authorities were already recommending vaccines other than AstraZeneca for people under 30, although this policy was brought in later than in some other countries after the MHRA had reportedly failed to make the link between the vaccine and rare blood clots for some time.
“As Covid-19 rates continue to come under control, we are advising that adults aged 18- 39 years with no underlying health conditions are offered an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, if available, and if it does not cause delays in having the vaccine,” confirmed Professor Wei Shen Lim, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which advises British health departments on immunisation, citing “a high priority on safety”.
Boris Johnson’s government has previously come under fire for its treatment of people who had adverse reactions to the AstraZeneca vaccine, with people who believe they were harmed by it being told they “will need to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the vaccination caused [a] disability and be assessed as being 60 per cent disabled” in order to receive a limited amount of compensation under an official damages scheme.
“The Government has a moral duty to compensate people who have suffered as a result of doing the right thing by the Government of being vaccinated,” complained Sir Christopher Meyer, a backbench MP from Prime Minister Johnson’s own party.