AstraZeneca appointments for under 30s will be cancelled from today amid a possible link between the jab and rare blood clots.
NHS England is to cancel all booked first-dose coronavirus vaccinations for anyone aged between 18 and 29 The Independent reports.
And anyone scheduled to have the AstraZeneca vaccine will have their appointment cancelled and they will be told to contact their GP to discuss their preference - possibly affecting several thousand people who were booked for a jab.
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On Wednesday following advice from the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) it was confirmed, as a precaution, that people under 30 in the UK are to be offered an alternative covid vaccine due to some evidence linking the AstraZeneca jab to rare blood clots.
But figures suggest the risk of developing a rare blood clot is tiny with about four people in a million who receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
And government advisor Professor Stephen Reicher stressed having a Covid-19 jab is “actually one of the safer things you do in the day”.
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Prof Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, said it must be remembered that the chances of such clots developing are “incredibly rare events”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “Something like 30 or 40 people drown in the bath every year, something like 1,000 people die falling down the stairs, something like 200 die from choking on their breakfast, and that’s many, many more deaths than we get from these vaccines so actually taking the vaccine is actually one of the safer things you do in the day, it’s definitely safer than cycling or driving to work. So these are incredibly rare events.”
Up to the end of March, the MHRA had received 79 reports of blood clots accompanied by low blood platelet count, all in people who had had their first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, out of around 20 million doses given.
Of these, a total of 19 people have died – which would equate to around one in a million, although the cause has not been established in every case.
The Covid-19 vaccination programme has prevented the deaths of some 10,400 older people in England since it began, new analysis suggests.
Figures from Public Health England (PHE) reveal the thousands of lives saved among those aged 60 and over in the space of four months.
From December 8 last year up to the end of March, more than 15 million jabs have been given to adults in this age group, PHE said.
According to its estimates, 9,100 deaths were prevented in those aged 80 and over, 1,200 were avoided in those aged 70 to 79, and 100 lives were saved in those aged 60 to 69.
But experts believe the "true value" of the Covid-19 vaccines may also be seen in terms of avoiding future deaths should there be a resurgence of the virus in the UK.
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