Astrazeneca jab batch suspended in Austria after death of nurse

[allchildrengrowup]

www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-austria-nurse-idUSKBN2AZ0AO

This news has spooked me a bit. I'm really not trying to scaremonger, but I was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism three weeks ago and am booked in for my Astrazeneca jab on Wednesday. Apparently the nurse died of severe coagulation disorders and a second nurse who received a dose from the same batch developed a pulmonary embolism.

I know that millions have now had the jab and these events are extremely rare (and prior to having the embolism I wouldn't have been worried at all), but I'm still feeling a bit nervous and wonder if I should ask my GP if I can switch to the Pfizer instead? Or am I being ridiculous?

@Kaylasmum49

donotfeedthebears I don't really understand all the data in your post apart from that there appears to have been a number of deaths after both vaccines. I had AZ on Friday and now I am utterly terrified that I am going to die from it (severe health anxiety) I feel like I made a huge mistake by having it.

It means that there is no evidence that either vaccine caused any deaths. The deaths that happened at some point in time after having the vaccine were in people who were old or otherwise sick. There is an absolute truth. If you have the vaccine, you will die after having it. Probably 40 years later, and of something else. Because people die.

I have a single prothrombin gene which means my blood clots more than other people - and infact it was one of the reasons my doctor put me on Group 6 as with long term covid clots in the lungs can be an issue. I have had the AZ vaccine. I think as another poster has said it could be a coincidence but if its not it's more likely something to do with something that has happened in that clinic in Austria. Millions of people have had AZ now and you have not read any reports about others having clots. If there were reports in different areas/countries to do with clots that's another thing all together but there hasn't been.

There's been an update on this story and a third nurse from a different hospital also suffered a lung embolism after receiving a shot from a different batch of AZ. She was hospitalised for 2 weeks and just recently discharged. The hospital Zwettl where the original 2 cases occurred have been cleared of any mistakes in handling & storage of the vaccine.

Here's the article in German however there will probably be more in English press coming soon: kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/weitere-krankenschwester-nach-astra-zeneca-impfung-im-spital/401212696

But millions of doses have been given in the UK with very few serious side effects (please read the monthly Yellow Card summary)

They need to get to the bottom of what's happening there as it doesn't make a lot of sense

I don't know much about how common this is, so I looked it up. An estimate of annual pulmonary embolism deaths in Europe is 6.5/100,000 according to this research from 2015: www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(19)30354-6/fulltext.
Per 9m people in Austria, that looks like you'd normally expect about 585 deaths per year of pulmonary embolism. Numbers treated who recover are over 10 times that. Numbers may have increased this past year because of covid. In a 2 week period, expecting 22 deaths and 220 cases... it's possible that one death and two other cases are a coincidence.