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Canada pauses AZ vaccines for under 55s (and says women most at risk)

999 replies

Boringlynormal · 30/03/2021 10:18

Please tell me this isn’t something to worry about: www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/30/canada-suspends-use-of-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-for-those-under-55

Speaking as a woman in her 30s who was immunised 4 days ago (article tells us the risk is for young women 4 - 20 days after vaccination), I’m panicking now. Yes I know it’s rare but so is dying of Covid in my age group so I’m wondering if I’ve made a huge mistake.

By the way I’m very pro vaccine and leapt on the chance to get one. I’m just feeling so anxious now.

OP posts:
Beamur · 30/03/2021 15:06

I had it 2 weeks ago. Have experienced very mild side effects.
They did say when I had mine to call the GP if you subsequently have a headache lasting more than 4 days.

Tootsey11 · 30/03/2021 15:09

@MintyMabel it's the type of clots that is the worry. Not your standard blood clot.

As an under 55 woman with 4 autoimmune conditions and taking hrt, I am not going to have the vaccine.

FloraFauna27 · 30/03/2021 15:29

@grapewine thank you for asking!

She is hopefully going to be ok, apparently she was very lucky. It’s strange, I was SO pro getting the vaccine before it happened but now I’m feeling increasingly wary. Which is probably silly as we can’t prove it was the vaccine, but it does seem really coincidental.

ForeverAintEnough12 · 30/03/2021 15:32

@Whichjab

Also from all I've read there have been the same amount of clotting events from Pfizer, why aren't they being suspended? Profit? Better lawyers?
I think it’s to do with the type of blood clot. AZ have been reporting a v unusual type of multiple clotting that hasn’t been reported in Pfizer as far as I am aware.

I would wonder about how well women and especially younger women were represented in the trials. Especially after reading invisible women!

Also I would think U.K. has largely been vaccinating elderly people with AZ given it’s now starting to vaccinate the

Boringlynormal · 30/03/2021 15:48

Surely the trial contained plenty of younger women. Wasn’t one concern that the trial didn’t have enough data on older people?

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ForeverAintEnough12 · 30/03/2021 15:54

@Boringlynormal I can’t actually find the breakdown of trial participants by gender and age! Anyone know where this can be found?

Boringlynormal · 30/03/2021 16:03

This article is quite reassuring: www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-reports-that-ireland-has-suspended-the-use-of-the-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine/

OP posts:
Boringlynormal · 30/03/2021 16:05

It also does seem like AZ and Pfizer both have reports of this type of clot disorder (not just general ones) and fairly equal reports at that.

The publicly available information on the AstraZeneca vaccine lists a total of 35 cases of thrombocytopenia reported on “Yellow Cards” in the UK up to 8th March 2021. This is a very small proportion of the yellow card reports which total over 54,000 in the context of nearly 10 million vaccinations delivered. For the Pfizer vaccine there are a total of 22 reports of thrombocytopenia out of 33,000 reports and well over 10 million vaccination doses. It is clear that the proportion of reports for this bleeding disorder is not different in the two vaccines.

OP posts:
FourWordsImMuNiTy · 30/03/2021 16:08

The trials contained a decent percentage of young/middle aged women I think, but there were only tens of thousands of people in the entire trial. If this side effect does exist then it’s probably too rare to have been spotted at trial stage.

Whichjab · 30/03/2021 16:09

So why is nothing mentioned about Pfizer, I understand people's concern about AZ silence but why no concern about Pfizer?

CuriousaboutSamphire · 30/03/2021 16:12

It just seems weird that we are getting quite different stats on this to the rest of the world We aren't. Our stats will be pretty much in line with everyone elses, once all the data smoothing has been applied.

The difference is that the UK is very vaccine compliant - a hold over from the beginning of the NHS. We have a whole organsiation based around looking at vaccine data and understanding how it applies to the UK population, compares to previous vaccine rollouts here and across the world. The NHS, PHE/S etc do this every single day even with no pandemic.

We also have a generally vaccine compliant population, only slightly undermined by the Wakely debacle and current anti vaxx rhetoric.

So numbers that make other countries stop and have are think are more easily understood and accepted here, because at all levels, we have seen much of it before, the government don't have to continually reassure a vaccine resistent population, send data to vaccine reluctant GPs and protect themselves from any political fallout from it, it just isn't novel here.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 30/03/2021 16:13

@Whichjab

So why is nothing mentioned about Pfizer, I understand people's concern about AZ silence but why no concern about Pfizer?
Because .... stuff!
Collaborate · 30/03/2021 16:14

More than half the adult population has received a covid jab - most of them the AZ one.

Are we going to blame everything that befalls them on the vaccine now?

I stubbed my toe after the jab. Add that to your statistics of scaremongering.

Boringlynormal · 30/03/2021 16:20

In really sorry, I’m not trying to scaremonger. Just feeling scared. I really am pro vaccine. When you’re injected with something on Friday it’s quite alarming on Tuesday when two countries say ‘We’re not sure that’s safer than the risk of Covid for your age group and sex, and if you get the life-threatening side effect it’ll start anytime in the next couple of weeks with some vague symptoms’.

OP posts:
ForeverAintEnough12 · 30/03/2021 16:23

@Whichjab

So why is nothing mentioned about Pfizer, I understand people's concern about AZ silence but why no concern about Pfizer?
From this Reuters article it seems to suggest it only occurs at increased rates with AZ and not the other vaccines. It would be good to get a comparator of rated across the different vaccines broken down by age and gender.

www.google.ie/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2BC01M

The U.S. experts also question why such events would occur only at increased rates with the AstraZeneca vaccine and not the vaccines by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc, Johnson & Johnson and Russia's Sputnik V vaccine - all of which are intended to produce antibodies aimed at the "spike" portion of the coronavirus that it uses to enter cells.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 30/03/2021 16:28

@FourWordsImMuNiTy

The trials contained a decent percentage of young/middle aged women I think, but there were only tens of thousands of people in the entire trial. If this side effect does exist then it’s probably too rare to have been spotted at trial stage.
I think AZ had the smallest of the trials too. 12k is stuck in my head but I’d need to look it up. They may not have administered enough doses for it to show up if it’s 1 in 100,000.

Surprised the risk/benefit doesn’t stack up for Germany given their current outbreak. It’s a bit different for Canada, I think.

AbsentmindedWoman · 30/03/2021 16:29

So the UK has had 57 cases of thrombocytopenia in total, between A and Pfizer? Are the demographics of these people known - were they mostly women?

I'm being thick here, but surely if a handful of younger women had died after either vaccine in the UK it would be reported on some news outlet?

I had thought the reason Pfizer was not getting any shit was because of the rarity of this blood clot complication.

Why is it only AZ coming under fire if the numbers are't significantly different? This is really odd.

lonelyplanet · 30/03/2021 16:34

Wales have found no cases:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56578562

SheilaTakeABow · 30/03/2021 16:36

@Boringlynormal

In really sorry, I’m not trying to scaremonger. Just feeling scared. I really am pro vaccine. When you’re injected with something on Friday it’s quite alarming on Tuesday when two countries say ‘We’re not sure that’s safer than the risk of Covid for your age group and sex, and if you get the life-threatening side effect it’ll start anytime in the next couple of weeks with some vague symptoms’.
Absolutely @Boringlynormal. I love vaccines, I think they're amazing, I get a flu jab every year and my kids have both had everything.

I was so happy to be getting my jab, and I think the rollout is a remarkable feat, but frankly the news coming out, when you are the exact demographic it refers to, is really unsettling.

Benjispruce2 · 30/03/2021 16:37

Had mine on 21/3 having just turned 50. Had a headache after 12 hrs that went with paracetamol. Fine since and wasn’t worried until today on reading it’s up to 20 days afterwards. I’m 9 days in and will fret now. Quite cross to only learn on here about U.K. cases, I hadn’t seen that on the news.

AbsentmindedWoman · 30/03/2021 16:38

Also, is autoimmune thrombocytopenia showing up in the covid patient population and at what rate? Blood clots are often mentioned as a covid complication but not sure what type.

Globetrotter123 · 30/03/2021 16:39

Also feeling v nervous today - had AZ 4 days ago. Suffer from chronic migraine so how would I know if I had ‘just’ a migraine (which lasts days anyway) or a reaction? Mother who had a brain haemorrhage and a stroke before 52 so it’s a bit close to home.

Can you hang in for something else if your refuse a 2nd AZ jab?

stairway · 30/03/2021 16:41

Younger HCP’s in the UK were probably more likely to have the Pfizer vaccine as it was the first to come to UK and tends to be given in hospitals because of the storage requirements.

Theonlyoneiknow · 30/03/2021 16:42

I see Berlin has now suspended the AZ vaccine too for under 60s.
www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/berlin-suspends-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-for-people-under-60-1.1194016

grapewine · 30/03/2021 16:45

[quote FloraFauna27]@grapewine thank you for asking!

She is hopefully going to be ok, apparently she was very lucky. It’s strange, I was SO pro getting the vaccine before it happened but now I’m feeling increasingly wary. Which is probably silly as we can’t prove it was the vaccine, but it does seem really coincidental.[/quote]
I'm pleased for your family that she is recovering. That's wonderful. Also pro vaccine but understand your worry.

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