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

[Boringlynormal]

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.

50-55s were vaccinated in March and it’s my understanding that most people were getting AZ, as they were reserving Pfizer for second doses.

So that’s a 5 year group that would have reported cases by now.

I had mine 16 days ago (I’m 50), so anyone older than me would by now be over the 20 day threshold.

Add to that all the areas around the country that were reporting vaccinations to people in their 40s because they were ahead.

bit i thought lots of these blot clot cases were in younger women in 20s and 30s/40s? tbere cant have been that many people in those age grouos who jave had az

@Mumtwoboys90, I understand your post, but it seems that the countries that have banned it are extending it to 55 and in some cases 60 year olds.

@Mumtwoboys90

bit i thought lots of these blot clot cases were in younger women in 20s and 30s/40s? tbere cant have been that many people in those age grouos who jave had az

Uk has got 6m people vaccinated in that age gap. May will be those with health problems. Many will have received az

Also don’t forget younger woman who are carers that have been vaccinated. I know quite a few woman in their 30s who have had AZ due to this.

Some of my daughters friends have recently had AZ. One volunteers in a care home. One is CEV. The other has severe asthma. They are all 19.

Most NHS staff have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. They were the first cohort to start along with the very elderly and the Pfizer vaccine was the first one to be authorised back in December 2020. I fact many NHS workers have now received the second Pfizer vaccine. So the AZ vaccine was mainly administered to older adults once it became available in contrast to Europe where the AZ vaccine was given to younger healthcare professionals and the Pfizer one reserved for the elderly.

Also lately many people below 50 has been called and I guess provided az

Lots of people I know in their 30s and 40s have already been vaccinated (for various reasons) and everyone who posted their vaccination card on social media had the AZ vaccine. I'd be surprised if there weren't already millions of under 50 women who've had the AZ vaccine in the UK.

@Onesunnydayiniceland all of DDs friends and colleagues have had AZ in NHS.

@mumsneedwine and my DH and the majority of his colleagues at a very large hospital received the Pfizer vaccine. My point was that the majority of people receiving a vaccine with the first cohorts were receiving the Pfizer vaccine and these would include some younger healthcare professionals. In Europe the early younger healthcare cohorts were receiving only the AZ vaccine and this may explain why the concerning events were seen first in Germany, Norway etc. And later in the UK. There is no question that the benefit outweighs the risk for the population as a whole with any of the vaccines. The question scientists and regulators are trying to answer is whether the balance shifts for certain parts of the population e.g younger women for the AZ vaccine and whether this population should be given a different vaccine.

@Onesunnydayiniceland Dd is 21 and all her fellow medical, nursing and physio students all got AZ. About 2,000 of them done in a week.

[quote Onesunnydayiniceland]@mumsneedwine and my DH and the majority of his colleagues at a very large hospital received the Pfizer vaccine. My point was that the majority of people receiving a vaccine with the first cohorts were receiving the Pfizer vaccine and these would include some younger healthcare professionals. In Europe the early younger healthcare cohorts were receiving only the AZ vaccine and this may explain why the concerning events were seen first in Germany, Norway etc. And later in the UK. There is no question that the benefit outweighs the risk for the population as a whole with any of the vaccines. The question scientists and regulators are trying to answer is whether the balance shifts for certain parts of the population e.g younger women for the AZ vaccine and whether this population should be given a different vaccine.[/quote]
But uk has been vaccinating below 50s for a while with az and that’s what a few of us are trying to tell you. Out of the 6-6.5m that have received the vaccine in that age some will have had az and some pfizer 50-50%? Uk has seen some scenarios but not all were women and not all were young so discarding the vaccine for women below 50 wouldn’t make sense unless you’d discard it for everyone and taking into account we only have az as Pfizer is limited ... then that would mean leaving a big proportion of the population without a vaccine for a few months ... with the risk of this people getting infected

Uk has seen some scenarios but not all were women and not all were young

This is a key part of what we need to know - age and sex of who has had this condition following an AZ vaccine.

If you google Dr Gregory Michael, (I don't know how to attach links, sorry) he's an American Dr who died in January of clotting/low platelets after developing symptoms 3 days after a Pfizer vaccine. Most of the news articles are from mid Feb, and at that point there were at least 36 people in the US who had also developed this after having either Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. IIRC they had vaccinated approx 42 million people at that point in the US.

Seems unlikely that they're getting cases in the US linked to Pfizer and Moderna, but not in Europe?

I googled it
He was 56 and he had classical ITP which is a bleeding and not a clotting disorder

The vaccine associated thing is so unusual because it's clotting with low platelets whereas low platelets will usually cause bleeding
It's mainly being called VIPIT or HIT

CVST is a blood clot in a being inside your brain and is a consequence of the clotting disorder but could be due to a different cause or you could have VIPIT without having CVST

The terminology is complicated and makes it harder for people to properly understand

Prof Ferguson said the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) were "considering this matter very urgently" but added:
"No vaccine, no medicine is risk free - it is always about a balancing equation against risk."

Glad to see they are on the case.

They will have been “on the case” for some while, but just because they haven’t posted on Mumsnet, splashed it across the tabloids or come round to your house to tell you about it doesn’t mean they aren’t “on the case” - just that these things have to be investigated methodically.

Doesn't covid cause these same rare clots?

A pp said that men should be prioritised for the vaccine. Women under 55/60 are the highest risk group for developing long covid. Over 1 million people in the UK already have it.

It's not as if Canada's slow vaccine rollout out is going so well. The article I linked last night reports covid is killing faster and younger.

I don't know what Canada would do if they hadn't "paused" AZ for some people. They haven't got enough of it to give to more people even if they wanted to.

Schulte
I just saw this in the news:
Professor Neil Ferguson said the development of blood clots in people who had been given the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine raised fresh questions over whether young people should be given a jab.

The adviser, who has had the Oxford jab, told Today: "In terms of the data at the moment, there is increasing evidence that there is a rare risk associated, particularly with the AstraZeneca vaccine but it may be associated at a lower level with other vaccines, of these unusual blood clots with low platelet counts.
"It appears that risk is age related, it may possible be - but the data is weaker on this - related to sex.

The headline in reference to his comment
Leading scientific adviser throws doubt on giving Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to children after blood clot reports

I'm glad he's saying this because nobody could accuse Neil Ferguson of being an anti vax conspiracy theorist. He's even had the AZ vaccine!

When he says young I am not sure that he is classing people in their 50s as young. Risks from covid begin to rise after 40.

“ They will have been “on the case” for some while, but just because they haven’t posted on Mumsnet, splashed it across the tabloids or come round to your house to tell you about it doesn’t mean they aren’t “on the case” - just that these things have to be investigated methodically.”

And this comment was necessary why? Are you finding it so difficult to understand that people want some reassurance?

And this comment was necessary why? Are you finding it so difficult to understand that people want some reassurance?

Necessary because some people seem to equate the necessity for proper investigation before coming up with a robust conclusion as “a cover up”. A lot of the comments posted on here seem to have the opposite aim to that of reassuring people - and by that I don’t mean any actual scientific findings should be swept under the carpet, just in case that’s what you’re planning to accuse me of next.

I think it’s utter madness that they don’t pause the vaccine for younger people in the U.K. whilst they check. It’s going to be hard to justify not having done so ABs in my opinion, will be manslaughter if any of those younger women die