The Joint Vaccine and Vaccination Committee of the Government said this week that people aged 18 to 29 who do not have a high risk of Covid should have the option of an alternative shot to the AstraZeneca vaccine if any its area. The accumulation of evidence linking the puncture to rare blood clots continues, although no definitive cause has yet been established. The move has sparked fears of a loss of confidence in the widely used AstraZeneca vaccine at a time when the UK is coming out of closure.
The scientific editor of the Observer, Robin McKie, explain Anushka asthana that the risks of blood clots are still incredibly low: current tests place the risk at about one in every 250,000 shots. But given that there are other vaccines to offer, he says that caution makes sense.
More than 30 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine in the UK and a study by researchers at Imperial College suggests that the link between Covid-19 and deaths is being broken. But other studies point to a third more severe wave of the virus in case vaccination rates decline.
Photography: Matthias Schräder / AP
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