WARRINGTON’S Director of Public Health is appealing to people to continue taking up the offers of vaccination following a new recommendation offering Unders 30s in the UK an alternative Covid vaccine to the AstraZeneca jab, due to evidence linking it to rare blood clots.
Thara Raj, Warrington Borough Council’s Director fo Public Health said: “Vaccination is extremely important in helping us in the fight against coronavirus. Please don’t hesitate to take up the offer of a vaccination when you are invited.
“It is advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) that everyone continues to go for their vaccination – whether it is the AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna injection.
“As an extra precaution, and while the data is being further investigated, the JCVI has suggested that people under 30 who are not clinically extremely vulnerable will be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“For those who are under 30 and in a clinically extremely vulnerable group, it is being advised that you take up the AstraZeneca vaccine if offered it because the benefits far outweigh any risks.
“This is particularly important if you have already had a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and have the second dose booked in. Please attend your appointment.”
The recommendation offering Under 30s an alternative, comes after a review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) found that 79 people had suffered rare blood clots after vaccination ny the end of March- 19 of whom had died.
While the UK drugs regulator said this was not proof the jab had caused the clots, the link was getting firmer.
The review the 79 cases and 19 deaths occurred after 20 million doses were administered – giving a risk of about four in one million of developing a blood clot, and one in a million of dying
Nearly two-thirds of the cases of rare clots were seen in women. The people who died were aged between 18 and 79, with three of them aged under 30
All the recorded cases occurred after the first dose, although the lower number of second doses meant it was not possible to draw any conclusions from this.
Meanwhile, the EU’s medicines regulator says unusual blood clots should be listed as a possible very rare side effect of the AstraZeneca jab, but that the benefits outweighed the risks.
Some European countries have restricted the vaccine’s use.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the review confirmed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab was “safe, effective and the benefits far outweigh the risks for the vast majority of adults”.
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