The potential risks of developing blood clots from a coronavirus vaccination are “pretty trivial” when compared with those posed by contracting Covid-19, a scientist has said.
Professor Sir John Bell, Oxford University’s Regius Professor of Medicine, told Sky News that blood clotting events being linked to vaccines are “extremely rare”.
He added: “The best way, if you want to have a bad clotting problem, is to get Covid.
“And if you don’t get a vaccine you’re going to get Covid, and if you get Covid you’ll have a very, very much higher risk of getting a bad clotting problem.
“So, the clotting problems of the vaccine are pretty trivial compared to the real risks of getting clotting problems if you get Covid.”
A number of countries have temporarily paused using some of the vaccines after a number of blood clots reported in people having had the jabs.
Professor Bell told Sky News: “We don’t have clear enough data on what the risks of these strange clots actually are with the different vaccines, and that data is coming together at the moment.
“We know for sure there’s a small risk associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine but also with the JJ (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine.
“I suspect there will be risks associated with the other vaccines that use the spike antigen as the target.
“This is more a function of the spike antigen, which is the thing that you make your antibody response to, than it is to the way you administer the vaccine.”
Commenting on the potential to combine doses of different vaccines, he said: “I suspect all these vaccines are going to have some background level of clotting issues, so I’m not sure by mixing them you’re going to make that any significantly better.”
But he added that mixing vaccines could give a “wider and stronger immune response”.
