You will shake your head in disbelief after reading this:
COVID VACCINEHESITATORS
Subject: The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition: Nervousabout AstraZeneca? Don’t be
Every week I host a two-hour radio program about health issues on national commercial radio. The most common talkback calls and email inquiries concern the clotting risk of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The level of paranoia is alarming.
Some callers have had blood clots and think this puts them at extra risk of experiencing the extremely rare cases of clotting associated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Others are on blood thinners and think AstraZeneca is not for them. Many over-50 s think the government’s advice in April restricting Moderna and Pfizer to younger Australians means they are missing out on the ‘‘ gold standard’’ . All of this is contributing to an unwillingness to get vaccinated with AstraZeneca. And all of it is wrong.
While it’s good news that the government has secured more supplies of Pfizer , it’s in everyone’s interests to get the nation vaccinated as quickly as possible. If you can get vaccinated with AstraZeneca now, you should.
First, it is a medical fact and not just an opinion that vaccination was the greatest advance of the 20th century. Vaccinations have stopped millions of children dying from nasty infectious diseases. Also, with conditions such as polio, vaccines have stopped lifelong disability. For reasons not based on any science whatsoever but from occasional anecdotes, a small but noisy antivaxxing community continues to spread gross misinformation based on no science whatsoever.
Cases of clotting associated with AstraZeneca involve a very rare and specific antibody response where antibodies are produced to a particular platelet receptor known as platelet factor 4. To date, the estimated occurrence is somewhere between one in 100,000 to 250,000 people.
The amount of media time this is consuming is ridiculous. There had been an occasional death before this condition was well recognised, but now people are detected early, treated and generally recover well.
To put this in perspective, the real harm is from developing COVID-19 . Twenty per cent of people who do will develop the more severe form of the condition which may lead to serious lung problems, often requiring a ventilator, and 30 per cent of these people with severe COVID-19 will develop severe clotting abnormalities. Between one to three out of these 20 will possibly die, especially if they are older or have serious co-morbid conditions.
Recent reports also suggest a third of the patients who developed the more severe version of COVID-19 will develop long COVID, characterised by fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive problems. An Oxford University study published in Lancet Psychiatry showed a third of COVID survivors were diagnosed with significant neurologic or mental health disorders within six months of recovering from the acute condition.
A study published in Nature from the Washington School of Medicine in St Louis showed that even with mild cases of COVID, within six months of recovering the risk of death from other conditions increased by 60 per cent.
Back to vaccinations, a recent study showed that in people over 50, AstraZeneca induces a better T-cell response (important for long-term immunity against the virus and potentially also the variants) than the mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer or Moderna. A prior history of clotting for other reasons does not increase your risk of clotting with AstraZeneca. This is a very rare, specific antibody condition that has nothing to do with a prior clotting history. The only exception is if a person has experienced heparin induced thrombocytopenia syndrome, which is very similar to the AstraZeneca-induced thrombocytopenia syndrome.
Heparin is a commonly used blood thinner given intravenously or subcutaneously in hospital to prevent clotting but, paradoxically, about 1 to 3 per cent of people who are given heparin develop clotting – that is, much more common than the AstraZeneca-induced version.
My wife and I both had the AstraZeneca vaccine this month and had absolutely no reaction such as the typical fever, fatigue or a headache. I look forward to my second vaccination in three months. I know I will never convince the antivaxxers but to those of you are vaccine-hesitant, I make a plea that you trust the science.
Dr Ross Walker is a cardiologist who has hosted the Healthy Living radio program for 25 years. It is currently broadcast on 2GB.
