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.

I just spoke to a friend who was vaccinated with AZ last Thursday. She is 46 and done as a carer. Do if they are stopping is surreptitiously for under 50#/s, it's a very recent thing. I think initial supplies are running out and they need to hold back for second doses is far more likely to be the case.

All reasonable points/questions MRex. Re: number 4. I think Italy have had a number of cases and they are quite famously not had a lower covid prevalence. Which makes me wonder whether it might be worse in people who have previously had covid. But then - point 4 still applies to some countries.

twitter.com/sailorrooscout/status/1371158484113371143?s=09

Nearly 6m people under 50 have been vaccinated , I’d say most of them wirh az

@EasterIssland In the U.K.? Weren’t most of them Pfizer as healthcare settings?

I do think the government needs to address this. Openly and properly. Apparently there have been hundreds of missed appointments in Wales. As it stands I am not keen to have my second one and I absolutely faithfully believed in AZ and was so happy when I got my invite.

[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]
Seriously! I despair. Millions have been vaccinated, of course some people will have a heart attack after, in the same way that some unvaccinated people will. Why are people getting this all out of proportion!!!

@MaxRiemelt Seriously? You can’t understand why someone’s mother having a serious heart attack after the vaccination would make a person worried? I didn’t say I wouldn’t get it.

And it makes you ‘despair’? What a cold hearted person you are.

According to the stats the NHS publishes:

"As of 21st March, 2,539,057 people
aged 50 to 54 and 5,410,856 people aged under 50 have been vaccinated with at
least one dose."

So actually loads of under 50s have had one does - doesn't break it down by vaccination manufacturer though.

[quote FloraFauna27]@RavingAnnie how would we go about doing that? It was only a few days ago.[/quote]
You can report here:

yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk

I didn't release it was so recent. Must have been such a shock. Glad she is doing ok.

@Boringlynormal yes I agree , show us the figures here for relevant age groups etc

@RavingAnnie great thank you, will get on her on that tomorrow!

MaxRiemelt Tue 30-Mar-21 20:00:55

Seriously! I despair. Millions have been vaccinated, of course some people will have a heart attack after, in the same way that some unvaccinated people will. Why are people getting this all out of proportion!!!

--

Well I think because folk are anxious about a new vaccine, which is fair enough. People don't trust our Government in the UK (also fair enough IMO). But on here I often see that people with existing health anxiety (they openly admit to) meet other people with health anxiety on these threads, and that is never a good thing. People with health anxiety jump to these threads so what you're seeing isn't a representative response. From people around me (I'm older and a lot of my age group are getting the jab at the moment) I don't see the levels of anxiety in real life I see on here.

I think it's important to consider the balance of harms. There are double-figures in the whole of Europe for reports of blood clots, against a background of rising Covid cases in some European countries – and the potential hundreds or thousands of deaths they will lead to. Each day we do not vaccinate the population adds more potential deaths in future. Suspending vaccination on such shaky statistical grounds – and building fear in the minds of many about the safety of the jab – does terrible damage to our efforts to end the pandemic.

Also to factor into the balance of harms would be the risk of long Covid. As someone said earlier in the thread I'd be more worried about that than any vaccine side effects.

Decades ago, I'm someone who was advised suddenly to stop taking the contraceptive pill by my doctor on Government advice, dutifully stopped taking it, got pregnant and developed a f*ing blood clot due to pregnancy. So yeah, I'm ALL about the balance of harms since then.

im 30s and had mine a few days ago im absolutely shitting myself now as i have anxiety and ocd and also suffer from awful migraines so how would i know if i need to worry about a headache?!

what worries me is if out of all of those who have had AZ how many are women under 50? it cant be that many?! so actually surely the risk could be quite high

does anyone know the figures on how many women in uk under 55 have had first AZ dose?
what are the other symptoms to look out for!?

I've seen the symptoms linked to this condition and they're pretty easy to spot. It starts off as a pin prick rash on the feet, spreading up the legs. Then you get horrendous bruising, my DD looked like she'd been beaten up. Thankfully we didn't get to the brain bleed bit as she was rushed to hospital and put on really strong medicine to suppress her immune system so her platelets could recover. She didn't have it post vaccine, but post bog standard common cold virus.

It sounds like she had ITP
This actually isn't ITP and there isn't a rash

Mumtwoboys90 bear in mind that it's a really rare thing anyway so you're likely to be absolutely fine.

@Boringlynormal

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.

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a sudden drop in platelets and can occur after a vaccine (it's a known rare side effect of MMR and flu jabs). I am not certain that this thrombocytopenia is the same as the clotting thrombocytopenia that is being reported with these brain clots from the AZ, because the usual ITP causes bleeding, not clotting.

Not a doctor!

I am a Dr and you are right

This new rare thing is not the same as ITP and it probably isn't what was reported on the yellow cards as thrombocytopenia

It's low platelets causing blood clotting rather than bleeding and it is most like a condition previously linked to heparin HTP

[quote Boringlynormal]@EasterIssland In the U.K.? Weren’t most of them Pfizer as healthcare settings?[/quote]
Many would had az as well
Same with clinically vulnerable people. They’d have had az as well

How soon after vaccine would this risk occur?

I don't think you should spend time worrying about this. Everyday, there are numerous news items on the news, lots of experts, some saying many different things regarding the vaccines.. Sometimes, it's a jumble of thoughts,going through your head, trying to make sense of all this information flying around.. Worrying types of people will start to believe everything they read.,despite there being so many conflicting views about the vaccines.

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

I am a Dr and you are right

This new rare thing is not the same as ITP and it probably isn't what was reported on the yellow cards as thrombocytopenia

It's low platelets causing blood clotting rather than bleeding and it is most like a condition previously linked to heparin HTP

@CovoidOfAllHumanity

As you ARE a doctor - and I won't hold you to this, and will seek advice elsewhere - since my ds got ITP (the "usual" type) from a flu jab, would you avoid AZ jab when his turn comes? He no longer has ITP (took exactly a year for platelets to return to normal range). He's not 16 yet so not an option yet.

covoidofall humanity im confused do you mean you think there are 2 separate things happening?
what is the difference between thrombocytopenia and heparin HTP