Everything About the Latest Issue with AstraZeneca Vaccine Simplified & Summarised for You

With all the recent developments regarding the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, people are wondering if the vaccine is still safe to use.

Well, read on though we Singaporeans have nothing to worry about since it appears that our Government hasn’t made any purchase of this vaccine for use in our tiny little red dot.

Is there a connection between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the severe cases of blood clots?

The answer is unfortunately both “Yes” and “No”.

The scientific community doesn’t yet have a conclusive consensus on this issue as investigations are still ongoing, but the different cases of vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT), a.k.a. what us laymen call “blood clots”, have been tentatively linked to the vaccine as of now.

This is mainly due to the fact that they occur in unusual parts of the body, including the brain or abdomen, and are frequently present alongside other symptoms such as low levels of platelets, which aids blood coagulation.

These symptoms are distinguishing characteristics of another condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopaenia or HIT.

It is a rare side effect that affects patients who have been given the anti-coagulant heparin, though we should also point out that the AstraZeneca vaccine does not contain heparin.

As it is likely a meme by now, it’s true that the risk of getting blood clots for taking contraceptive pills is significantly higher than receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The risk of getting blood clots for women who are on the pill is about 0.3% to 1% over 10 years, while the risk of getting blood clots for people taking the AstraZeneca vaccine is one in 250,000 people vaccinated, or 0.0004%, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK.

Even if you decide to consider the data from Germany or from the European Medicines Agency instead, they are reporting an incidence rate of roughly 1 per 90,000 shots and 1 per 100,000 shots respectively. That’s just 0.0011% and 0.001% respectively, people!

I mean I’m not even a maths expert but I can see the huuuuggeeee difference between these numbers.

The incidence of serious blood clots from:

The Contraceptive Pill: 0.6%

The AZ vaccine: 0.00017%

How much time did you spend wracking your brain about the first one?

I really hope that the media are proportionate in their reporting.

— Keir Shiels (@keirshiels) April 7, 2021

New efficacy results released regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.

If you’re taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, know that you’re not taking the risk for nothing.

In its large-scale Phase-III U.S. trials that had just concluded in March 2021, AstraZeneca released these results in their press release:

– 76% vaccine efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19

– 100% efficacy against severe or critical disease and hospitalisation

– 85% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 in participants aged 65 years and over

In summary though, the AstraZeneca vaccine was found to be 79% effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms in the overall population.

Though, we should mention that recently Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the US, claims that the US will not likely need to use the AstraZeneca vaccine as they already have enough vaccines from other sources to vaccinate a significant portion of the US population. He did point out that the AstraZeneca vaccine does have good efficacy, however.

And yes, despite being less effective than the mRNA vaccines, namely the Pfizer and the Moderna versions, the AstraZeneca is a lot cheaper to produce, to store, and to transport, making it a powerful tool in the effort to immunize the world from COVID-19.

Incidences of brain thrombosis in vaccinated people discovered, especially among younger women, might be misleading.

You’ve probably heard about how the blood clots caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine seem to affect females, specifically young women, the most.

Now, this is still something that’s still under investigation and it’s best to take the news with a bit of salt.

Why? Well, according to an article by well-known and established scientific journal, Nature, the author pointed out that this apparent bias towards women could be the result of many countries prioritizing vaccination for healthcare workers, where the majority are female.

The director of the Drug Safety Research Unit in Southampton, UK, Saad Shakir specified that the fact that blood clots more commonly affect younger vaccinated people might also be misleading.

This is because blood clots and strokes are more common in older people, and as such, similar incidences may not kick-off the same level of in-depth investigation in the elderly vs in the younger adults.

In taking an abundance of precaution, most countries restricted the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine to seniors over the age of 60 in spite of potentially misleading info.

Nevertheless, many countries in Europe have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under the age of 60. These countries include Germany, Spain, Italy and Ireland.

Both Canada and France are only recommending the use of the vaccine for people over the age of 55, while Australia is recommending people under 50 to get the Pfizer vaccine instead.

The UK, on the other hand, had suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people below the age of 30. A current ongoing trial on the use of the vaccine in children has been halted as well as the MHRA carries out its review of the safety of the vaccine.

Let’s take a breather and learn a new “fun fact” – Did you know that the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is now known as “Vaxzevria”?

It’s true, we looked it up!

We didn’t use its new name in this article though since we suspect not many people are familiar with the name as of yet.

Let’s continue…

Is the AstraZeneca vaccine effective against the new COVID-19 variants?

Well, the answer is also both “Yes” and “No” in this case.

According to the UK government’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van Tam, there is “plenty of evidence” showing that the vaccine seems to be effective against the Kent/UK variant which is dominant in the UK and has now spread across the world.

However, it didn’t do so well against the South African variant

Granted that the vaccine should still protect the recipient against severe disease, as reported by BBC, a preliminary study of only around 2,000 people suggests the AstraZeneca vaccine may offer more limited protection against mild and moderate disease caused by the South Africa variant.

However, the sample size for this trial is very small.

Little to no official or peer-reviewed data has been published or released in regard to the efficiency of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the Brazil variant as of yet, but the prognosis isn’t looking too good for the vaccine

Considering the blood clot issue, who’s still using the AstraZeneca vaccine?

As of the end of March, the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been given approval to be administered in 86 countries – first by the U.K. in December (obviously) and then by the European Union, Canada, India, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Morocco in January.

The World Health Organization (WHO) granted the vaccine “emergency use” listing, making the vaccine available in low- and middle-income countries in February.

As of now, more than 17 million doses have been given in both the EU and the UK.

Since the US seems to have enough vaccines for the immunization effort already, Dr Anthony Fauci was reported as saying that there’s no need for the US to purchase any AstraZeneca vaccines.

The European Commission has decided not to extend the contracts with AstraZeneca on supplies of their vaccines over reports of severe blood clotting

Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccines at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is reported to have suggested a clear link between the jab and rare blood clots.

Though, he has admitted that it was uncertain how the vaccine could cause the complication.

Hence, it’s not surprising to know that recently, the European Commission has decided to not extend their contract with AstraZeneca.

This isn’t the only reason, however!

The EU has had a pretty public spat with the company when AstraZeneca suddenly informed them that they weren’t able to deliver the doses they promised, triggering the EU to accuse the company of nationalism.

The EU even almost imposed a vaccine export ban to prevent AstraZeneca vaccines produced in Europe from being exported to the UK where its vaccination effort is a lot more successful than its European counterparts.

And if this makes you feel any better, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently received her first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine!

As quoted (after translation) from her Tweet, Merkel said: “I am delighted to have received my first vaccination today with AstraZeneca. I thank everyone who is involved in the vaccination campaign — and everyone who gets vaccinated. Vaccination is the key to overcoming the pandemic.”

Various prominent politicians in Germany have had their AstraZeneca jabs as well, with the German Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz, being one of the more recent recipients.

If she’s confident with the vaccine, we all should also be!

Ultimately – and I’m sure you’ve heard this plenty of times already, the benefits outweigh the risks.

If you have the opportunity to get a COVID-19 vaccine that works and is approved by the government, then we hope, for all our sakes, you’ll take it.

You can find out more about COVID-19 vaccines that are approved for use in Singapore with this video:

Featured Image: Seda Yalova / Shutterstock.com