The Oxford-AstraZeneca team must pull their hair out one more week after coming out to the headlines about a possible link between the vaccine and rare blood clots.
In March, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had found no link between the vaccine and a “global risk” of blood clots. However, the agency could not rule it out completely and called on governments to “raise awareness” about blood clots and include information about them for health workers and people who were vaccinated. The agency later said these rare blood clots should be listed as possible “rare side effects” of the vaccine.
Since then, the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has taken precautionary measures and advised anyone with possible symptoms of a blood clot four days or more after getting the vaccine. to seek urgent medical advice while investigating claims of a link to the vaccine further. On April 7, he stated, “It is preferable that people under the age of 30 without underlying health conditions be offered an alternative vaccine when possible once they are eligible.” This is because, although the benefits of having the vaccine far outweigh the risks for those in older age groups, the balance becomes more complicated for those statistically at lower risk of being hospitalized for COVID- 19. The agency noted with caution that there is still no conclusive evidence that the vaccine causes clots, but that the links became “stronger.”
The statement added: “The Health England Health (PHE) analysis indicates that the COVID-19 vaccination program prevented 6,100 deaths in those aged 70 and over in England by the end of February. “Safety is investigated rigorously and anyone with unexpected symptoms should talk to a healthcare professional. All medications are at risk for side effects.”
The MHRA says that the symptoms of a blood clot will depend on the location of the blood clot:
A clot in the lungs: difficulty breathing, chest pain.
A clot in the abdomen: abdominal pain and / or swelling.
A clot in the blood vessels of the brain: headache (starting four days after the vaccine), blurred vision, confusion or seizures.
A clot in the leg: swelling and / or redness in the leg.
The agency also advises anyone who has an unexplained rash or bruises beyond the injection site to speak with a healthcare professional.
While this may be of concern to some people, it is important to state that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective for the vast majority of people and that the risk of developing clots from a coronavirus infection is much higher than the risk. to get them from the vaccine. .
The MHRA, the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have concluded that the balance is very favorable
vaccination.
[Illustration by Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]Progress report: Pfizer vaccines will soon be available for children aged 12 to 15 years
On Friday, April 9, Pfizer BioNtech applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval for emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine for teens ages 12 to 15 years.
Pfizer said it plans to seek similar rulings from other regulators around the world in the coming days. The statement appears on the back of the phase three trials the company has been conducting in children aged 12 to 15, who they say have shown 100% effectiveness and a solid antibody response. He added that while all participants will continue to be monitored for long-term side effects, the vaccine was generally well tolerated and the side effects reported were on a scale similar to those aged 16 to 25 years.
The Pfizer vaccine uses mRNA technology to initiate an immune response that has been shown to protect vaccinated people from COVID-19 symptoms. After injection, mRNA tells human cells to begin making proteins similar to the spike protein found on the outer surface of the coronavirus. These proteins are recognized as “alien” by the host’s immune system, which then launches an attack by destroying the proteins in the ear and the cells that may contain them.
Longer lasting immune cells patrol the body. If the vaccinated person contracts the actual coronavirus, these patrol cells will immediately recognize the spike protein on the surface of the virus as “strange” and launch a much faster immune attack against the virus and the cells it has managed to invade earlier. that the person becomes ill from the disease.
There are many experts who say that to control this pandemic, we need to focus on a “zero COVID strategy,” and vaccinating children with the goal of stopping their spread is part of it.
However, this is not as simple as vaccinating children against diseases such as measles or polio, which we know can make them extremely ill. When evaluating vaccine use in young people, the risk of side effects is extremely important. Healthy young people are very unlikely to suffer from COVID-19 disease; many will show no symptoms. However, they can play an important role in transmitting the virus to other people, and this is where the difficult decision to vaccinate a cohort of the population to protect others must be made.
Of course, there is concern that the virus may make young people with underlying diseases, especially those with an immune system disorder, very ill and the approval of the vaccine for these young people seems much more advantageous. The fact that the vaccine has generally been tolerated will help the FDA and other regulatory agencies make an informed decision.
[Illustration by Jawahir Al-Naimi/Al Jazeera]And now, good news: New Zealand a year
Most countries look to New Zealand and its leader, Jacinda Ardern, with mixed feelings of hope and envy. The country, with a population of 4.9 million, has recorded only 26 deaths from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic just over a year ago.
It has been found that almost all the positive cases of the last six months have been imported from abroad. Whenever a positive case is found in New Zealand, the country investigates vigorously and local blocking measures are imposed. On February 14, 2021, when three cases of community transmission were discovered in Auckland, shops were closed, non-local travel was banned, and socialization was restricted to domestic bubbles.
New Zealand currently has no concerns about community transmission and focuses all its efforts on border control in its continued intention to keep COVID cases at zero. New Zealand has one of the strictest border control measures in the world, as anyone entering the country must quarantine for 14 days in a hotel.
This contrasts with countries such as the United Kingdom, which has suffered a devastating death toll from COVID-19 and, until recently, has been unable to secure its borders. Instead, the UK now puts all its eggs in one basket: vaccination.
With most of the world unvaccinated, there is still a clear and current danger of importing new variants from abroad or as the numbers decrease, people return unintentionally to foreign holiday variants. Unlike New Zealand, which took swift and decisive action to eliminate COVID and where residents can now enjoy an almost normal life, although within the limits of their own borders, many countries have no choice. remedy that reduce the number of COVID to “acceptable” ”And live at risk of seasonal increases in cases, hospital admissions and even deaths.
There will always be the argument that New Zealand is a small island nation and found it relatively easy to control its borders and eliminate the virus, but speaking like someone living on a small island, albeit with a much larger population, I can say with some confidence that we can all learn lessons from Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand.
On the vaccination bus: take the vaccines out of the clinic to the community
Much has been said about the lower level of vaccine uptake in people from minority backgrounds in Western countries and much has been done to improve vaccine uptake in these groups. I have talked about the barriers that people in these communities face when it comes to accessing health care and, in turn, their confidence in the vaccine. The reasons are many and complex.
One way to show that health professionals are taking their health seriously and want to protect them from COVID-19 is to get the vaccine out of clinics and directly into the community.
This approach has proven to be effective in the past when doctors went to mosques, gurdwaras and temples to vaccinate people. Supported by religious leaders, confidence in the vaccine has increased.
But not all people of minority backgrounds visit places of worship and there is a danger of losing a certain cohort of this “hard-to-reach” population. Now, some parts of the UK are using a “COVID vaccination bus” in areas that have had less vaccine absorption in the first phase of vaccine launch.
When we did this in my area of the north of England, not only people from minority backgrounds helped the bus, but also those from poorer areas who have often reduced vaccine uptake.
Our bus was equipped with hundreds of doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be transported much more easily than Pfizer doses due to refrigeration requirements. Together with a volunteer group of doctors, we went to communities that had a lower uptake of the vaccine.
We had a fabulous response; people were curious to know why a vaccine bus had parked on their street and was leaving their house to ask questions. The vaccine was offered to anyone over the age of 50 or in a high-risk group and many people accepted the offer. For those who don’t have a car or funds for public transportation, getting to a vaccine center can be difficult, so getting with them was a big benefit. People who doubted the vaccine had a chance to ask questions and we were able to clear up some of the myths and misinformation about the vaccine that have been circulating.
I had previously vaccinated people in mosques and had really enjoyed the experience; the same thing happened with the vaccine bus. If we want to collaborate with these communities and protect them from a virus that has disproportionately affected people from poorer backgrounds and those from minority groups, we must comply with them in their terms, and that is one way to do that. ho.
Reader’s question: when will it be safe to stop wearing masks?
It’s been a long year of restrictions, and with many countries accelerating their vaccination programs, many people are wondering when they can meet family and friends without masks.
It’s complicated; we know that vaccines protect against the symptoms of COVID and we know that they are likely to help reduce the transmission of the virus, but we do not yet have conclusive evidence. In addition, there are still large sections of the population that are not vaccinated, so wearing masks is still mandatory in many inland areas.
A survey by New Scientist with leading experts from across the UK found that most thought the masked suit would continue until at least 2022. And, even after countries have stopped requiring the wearing of masks, it is believed that many people will decide to continue wearing them in crowded spaces.
We saw this happen in the Far East after the outbreak of SARS, where populations continued to wear masks, which may have helped reduce the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic when other Western countries still they were confronted with the idea of wearing face masks.
I hope this doesn’t make me popular with readers here, but I think wearing some mask to some extent in certain situations may be at least over the next year.