The following blog is written by Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, MD, CCFP. She is the founder of ARCH Clinic Guelph and Waterloo, Founding Director of Bracelet of Hope and Founder of the Hope Health Centre
Let’s discuss the AstraZeneca vaccine. I am just going to give you some facts. You can make your own decision about the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On March 29th, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended provinces pause on the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine on those under the age of 55 because of safety concerns. NACI’s priority is vaccine safety. Their decision came after the European Medicines Agency ( EMA), Europe’s Health Canada equivalent, investigated 25 cases of very rare blood clots out of about 20 million AstraZeneca vaccines given. On March 18th the EMA concluded that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine far outweigh this risk if there is a true increased risk of the blood clots.
Most of these rare blood clots occurred in women under the age of 55 ( 18 out of 25). Thus, NACI’s recommendation to halt the use of the AZ vaccine in this age group pending further review of the ongoing real-time research.
So, 25 cases out of 20 million vaccinations is a risk of about 1 in a million. That means that if there actually is an increased risk, the risk is 1 case of the rare blood clots out of 1 million vaccines given. One in a million.
Let’s shed some light on that: The risk of blood clots developing among new users of oral contraceptive pills ( birth control pills) is 8 out of 10,000. Thirty four out of 10,000 women who use hormone replacement therapy ( HRT ) will develop a blood clot at some point. And, the risk of developing a blood clot in women in general is is 16/100,000.
The Canadian maternal mortality rate ( the rate of death in women during childbirth) is 8.3 deaths per 100,000.
No medical intervention is without risks. The question is, should we take that risk? That is what NACI will try to figure out in the coming weeks. Let’s balance that risk of 1 in a million with the risk of COVID-19.
A new briefing note from a panel of science experts advising the Ontario government on COVID-19 shows a province at a tipping point. Variants that are more deadly are circulating widely, new daily infections have reached the same number at the height of the second wave, and the number of people hospitalized is now more than 20 per cent higher than at the start of the last province-wide lockdown.
These variants are more dangerous and more easily transmitted. They cause 2.5 to 4.1 deaths per 1000 detected cases. That’s deaths. The risk of serious complications with the variants is double the risk of the original COVID-19 virus: 20 out of 100.
Here’s a quote that scared me. “Right now in Ontario, the pandemic is completely out of control,” Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director and a professor of medicine and epidemiology with the University of Toronto and member of Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is over 70% effective up front and almost 100% effective at preventing deaths and hospitalizations from COVID-19. Breathe. It is not time to throw out the baby with the bath water. No blood clots have occurred in people over 60. We should continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine in this age group which is most at risk of serious complications and death from COVID-19.
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