The Australian medicines regulator has recommended that the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is only used in those aged 60 years and over amid further reports of blood clotting following vaccination, as well as reports of a link between the AZ vaccine and an illness that can leave patients paralysed.
Five out of the 12 confirmed and probable new cases of blood clotting following vaccination are actually in people over the age of 60, according to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). A further four cases are in people less than five years away from turning 60. All remaining cases are in people above the age of 50.
The Guardian has more.
Pfizer will be the preferred vaccine for eligible people under 60 following a recommendation from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). However, people who have had their first shot of AstraZeneca will be advised to have their second shot of the same vaccine.
The Health Minister, Greg Hunt, said the opening of Pfizer to people aged 50 to 59 would mean that the 2.1 million people in this cohort who have yet to have the AstraZeneca shot will receive the Pfizer vaccine instead.
The TGA reported on Thursday there were a further 12 reports of blood clots and low blood platelets assessed to be confirmed or probable cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine in the past week.
The new cases include three confirmed in 55 and 65 year-old women from Victoria and a 53 year-old woman from NSW. The nine new probable cases include: a 54 year-old man from the Northern Territory, a 65 year-old woman from Tasmania, 50 and 56 year old men and a 69 year-old woman from Victoria, a 58 year-old woman from South Australia, 59 and 80 year-old men from Queensland, and a 67 year-old woman from NSW.
It takes the total of Australian reports of TTS following the AstraZeneca vaccine to 37 confirmed and 23 probable.
The estimated risk of TTS following the first dose is 3.1 per 100,000 for people under 50, 2.7 for people between 50 and 59, 1.4 for people between 60 and 69, 1.8 for people 70 to 79, and 1.9 for people over 80 years of age.
The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, said the new cases had “changed the rate” for those between 50 and 59, changing the risk profile more in line with those under 50. There have been two deaths in Australia linked to TTS, and Kelly stressed it remains a very rare condition.
“Remember this remains a very rare but sometimes serious event; we’re picking it up much more commonly than other countries because we’re looking more fully,” he said.
“For most people, they’ve been diagnosed early, there was a large proportion of those with a less severe form of this rare syndrome, and most of those have been discharged from hospital already.”
Last week, the Italian Government also restricted the use of the AZ vaccine to people over the age of 60 after the death of a teenager with blood clots following vaccination.
The Guardian report is worth reading in full.
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Remember when unshaven Australians would drink, smoke, swear and carry a sheep under each arm (and that was the women)
Now they are all moisturised and asking if their vaccine bumps look big in this (and that’s the blokes) How to fanny a country in a few years
When you inject a clotting agent (e.g. a COVID spike protein) you get sudden blood clotting.
All get clots, most get symptoms, some get illness, some die.
Clotting is not rare.
I couldn’t be convinced to take one of the current vaccines – for one I had covid, for another I have all kinds of allergies and I do not trust the health service to take any notice in what seems to me to be a half crazed injecting frenzy AND I don’t want the stuff. If my life is going to be restricted, excluding me from public buildings, private venues and trips abroad then so be it. To do so is a terrible indictment of a society and I will fight it as much as possible.
So the figures indicate it is safe for under 50s but not for older people. Is this Ozlogic?
It’s so unsafe they can’t get cover up the problems so have to spread them out with the experimental RNA pseudo vaccines.
I believe the age cut off point of under 60 has been chosen arbitrarily simply because anyone over 60 is regarded as being on their way out of the workforce and therefore not a problem if they’re unlucky enough to suffer a life changing blood clot or stroke.
It’s also easier to say a blood clot causing stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, brain haemorrhage is just coincidental in over 60s
It might depend on their costs as well, such as pensions; a jab in the bank, as it were.
Throw the AZ jab under the bus and others will take its place. Meanwhile, a semblance of being responsible has been created. But the jab programme rolls on.
So the question is not “do you want a vaccine” but “which vaccine do you want”
Obviously, somebody in high places has decided they didn’t manage to offload enough “useless eaters” first time around
And here I am being called a refusenik for being unwilling to take a second jab of Astra Zeneka – yet fall into the danger group in Australia and Italy (and banned by other countries) – oh and happened to get pretty sick from the first round – do we live in a rogue state run by fascist technocrats – yes is the short answer. I have T cell immunity (tried and tested)… I do not get sick from this virus – wtf would I accept any risk whatsoever from a known potentially dangerous substance?
Yikes, as an over 60 I often feel a bit invisible. Nice to know it’s official that It’s ok to take a punt on my health and my life. I thought the point of the jabzy was to SAVE the elderly? It seems I’m not either young enough or old enough to be of importance at this stage!!
This implies the over 60s are economically useless collateral to be monetised one last time before they kick it.
don’t know why the authorities world wide seem so suprised at clotting problems.. check page 6 on the “original” product info on the AZ jab from the EMA
Vaxzevria, COVID-19 Vaccine (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) – vaxzevria-previously-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-epar-product-information_en.pdf
slightly different to our goverment product info..
for recipients.. se bottom of page 4
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca UK – uk_-recipients-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-reg174_proposed_14_April_2021.pdf
and healthcare .. see bottom page 5
COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca UK – uk-HCP-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-reg174_proposed_14_Apr_2021.pdf
and i thought altering clinical trial data was illegal..