Hundreds of thousands of Scots under 30 have already received the AstraZeneca jab which has now been banned for their age group.
The majority of them work in the NHS or care sectors but some have already received their vaccinations as part of the general roll-out programme.
But last night health experts urged them: “Don’t obsess about it” as they pointed out there had only been 79 cases in the UK out of 20 million people who have been vaccinated.
However, anyone of any age who has had the AstraZeneca Covid jab and is exhibiting symptoms like chest pain or breathing difficulties should seek seek medical advice immediately.
Symptoms like these are most likely within “the first few days” of having the vaccination according to National Clinical Director Jason Leitch.
But he said: “If you have a serious blood clot you will know and you will know to seek medical care immediately. You are more likely to have a heart attack generally in life.”
Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Amanda Croft, commented: “We would encourage anybody with any sort of side effects whatsoever to come along and speak to their GP or primary care team.”
Leitch was at pains to emphasise: “The benefits outweigh the risks.”
And he added: “You shouldn’t obsess about it. It is vanishingly rare and it happens relatively quickly, within a matter of days, and you would get chest pains, shortness of breath, maybe a skin rash away from the site of where the injection was, so you would know.”
The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations decided on Wednesday, following statements from the European medicines regulator, the EMA, and the UK regulator, the MHRA, that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be given to anyone under 30 because of a rare risk of blood clots with lowered platelets.
The MHRA pointed out, however, that the overall risk of these blood clots is approximately four people in a million who receive the vaccine with the data suggesting there is a slightly higher incidence reported in the younger adult age groups.
Leitch said it was “crucial” people still came forward for vaccination when invited an that the change in advice was “a caution” and that there needed to be more research to establish any definitive link.
He said: “This blood clotting issue is very rare and there is considerably more risk in relation to contracting Covid than there is from getting a blood clot from the vaccination.
“All those who have had a first dose of AstraZeneca should still go on to receive their second dose regardless of age, except for a very small number who have experienced blood clots from low platelet counts from their first vaccination - but these are tiny numbers of people.
“If you are a 24-year-old nurse who has had one dose you should definitely have dose two.”
He said he could not say how many people had been affected in Scotland because the numbers generally were so low it would be difficult to give details without identifying patients.
Leitch confirmed, however, that there had been no cases so far of people developing blood clots from their second dose of vaccine.
The 700,000 Scots under 30 who have still to receive their vaccines will now be given either the Pfizer or Moderna ones but Leitch said had the AstraZeneca one been the only one in the world “the advice would have been to keep going”.
Younger people may, however, have to travel further to get their jabs because Pfizer and Moderna need to be kept at a specialist freezer temperature so can only be issued in certain locations.
Leitch said despite the change, Scotland remained on course to have offered every adult a vaccine by the end of July.
He said the vaccination programme was already showing positive effects in terms of the numbers being hospitalised and dying from Covid.
There were 364 new cases of Covid overnight and 174 people in hospital - 18 fewer than the day before. Of those hospitalised 21 are in ICU with recent infection and another 11 are long stay patients. There was one new death recorded bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 7,620.
However, National Records of Scotland figures released yesterday show the numbers of confirmed and suspected deaths from Covid are now perilously close to 10,000 - with a new total of 9,997.
Leitch commented: “We are definitely seeing a reduction in hospitalisations and deaths for sure and the length of hospital stay has fallen.
“People going into hospital are younger and are surviving and are getting out quicker.”
