Coronavirus

[Dave2002]

It is concerning.

By the way, although I might be wrong, I think that the study you are referring to mentioned the Pfizer vaccine rather than the AZ.

More details can be found here: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/e...ncer-patients/

Probably you’re right. Thanks for the comment. It was mentioned on one of the earlier morning programmes and I wasn’t really fully awake - though I’d been doing things since before 6am. It doesn’t necessarily mean that cancer patients will be worse off if they take reasonable precautions. They may be more likely to have problems due to their treatment delays. Hopefully they will be given reasonable advice by their treatment teams.

[french frank]

Had my second Pfizer almost four hours ago and - so far so good. Haven't inspected my arm to see if there's a red patch as it's too cold (very windy outside) to take my pullover off and roll my sleeve up. That seems to be four of the 48 hours gone when one might suffer after-effects.

[oddoneout]

Switched my mobile on this afternoon so I could go through the verification kerfuffle to access my government gateway record and found a missed text from the GP surgery saying I could phone to book an appointment at the local centre for a jab - hooray. Fingers crossed that works out, I'd just about resigned myself to having to do the city centre bus travel option, and had already asked the bus company to send me a timetable(no smartphone, no printer) to work out best way to avoid too much hanging around outside in the perishing cold either at the bus station or the centre itself.

[Joseph K]

Had the first AZ jab yesterday - fortunately it hasn't made me feel sick.

[Frances_iom]

there is NO indication that the jab caused the DVT reported - just to repeat Correlation is not Causation except in the hands of those pushing mischief. Since the UK has given many million such jabs are they hiding something? or are the Brits not susceptible to DVTs - agreed that there might be something wrong with a specific batch tho IMO I'd be very surprised it this is the case

[Petrushka]

there is NO indication that the jab caused the DVT reported - just to repeat Correlation is not Causation except in the hands of those pushing mischief. Since the UK has given many million such jabs are they hiding something? or are the Brits not susceptible to DVTs - agreed that there might be something wrong with a specific batch tho IMO I'd be very surprised it this is the case

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/15/evidence-oxford-vaccine-blood-clots-data-causal-links

[Simon B]

Wherever humans go, spurious correlations are sure to follow.

It pays never to forget that humans see faces in clouds.

Nor that careless consideration determines that ice cream causes murder in some places. Famously, sales of ice cream are indeed positively correlated with murder rates in e.g. NYC and have predictive power.

100,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year, 274 a day. It'd be very surprising if significant numbers of people who've had the vaccine recently didn't have events such as these shortly after.

It'd be very surprising if a vaccine didn't trigger serious adverse events in a small number of people - it is, after all, triggering the immune system, a complex and heavy-duty biological process whose malfunctions routinely cause all sorts of problems.

None of this excludes the possibility that vaccines are more harmful than just another tiny level of risk to add to the background soup of threats to ongoing existence. However, the smaller a risk is, the more people have to take a punt on it before it is possible to quantify how small. What alternative is there?

Pre-Covid, a 60yr old in the UK had a roughly 1 in 150 chance of dying before their next birthday, mostly from something they didn't see coming. Rationally, everything ought to be weighed against that.

[vinteuil]

Wherever humans go, spurious correlations are sure to follow.

It pays never to forget that humans see faces in clouds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

.

[LHC]

there is NO indication that the jab caused the DVT reported - just to repeat Correlation is not Causation except in the hands of those pushing mischief. Since the UK has given many million such jabs are they hiding something? or are the Brits not susceptible to DVTs - agreed that there might be something wrong with a specific batch tho IMO I'd be very surprised it this is the case

I understand that there have been 37 reports of blood clots among the 17 million people who have been vaccinated with the AZ vaccine across Europe. This is lower than the average level in the non vaccinated population.

In the UK there have been 12 cases of blood clots in people having the AZ vaccine, and 15 in people who have the Pfizer vaccine. Both numbers are lower than would be normal in the general population.

[Frances_iom]

It's a pity that "More or less" is no longer on R4 as this is the sort of topic it excelled at - one comment on R4 5pm-6pm slot was that the reported conditions were similar to known complications of covid re strange blood platelets - I doubt if any covid test was done pre jab and it is generally agreed that any immunity doesn't start until 10days or so

[Cockney Sparrow]

“There's no proof the Oxford vaccine causes blood clots. So why are people worried?” - David Spiegelhalter

Guardian Article puts it in perepective:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/15/evidence-oxford-vaccine-blood-clots-data-causal-links

[johnb]

In the UK there have been 12 cases of blood clots in people having the AZ vaccine, and 15 in people who have the Pfizer vaccine. Both numbers are lower than would be normal in the general population.

I've been puzzled why the only AZ vaccine has been singled out for these suspensions, seeing that both clotting and low platelet counts have also been observed, at least in the UK, with the Pfizer vaccine (though no more than what could be expected in the general population).

It seems unreasonable to suppose that it is because of a general anti-AZ attitude in the EU that has been fostered by ill considered pronouncements by various politicians. Nevertheless I do have a sneaking suspicion that this might have contributed. (Mind you, the somewhat haphazard AZ Phase 3 trial didn't help matters.)

[johnb]

Incidentally, the rate of reduction in case numbers seems to have slowed significantly in recent days, with Scotland showing signs of an increase in cases. However, that might be influenced by the increase in the number of tests being carried out.

This chart might be confusing but the more negative a line goes, the greater the rate of decrease in cases. Anything above zero is an increase. The swings in the rate of decrease are puzzling. Heaven knows what happens next,



The regions/nations in the legend are in the same order as the region/nation rate of change at 10th March.

[Frances_iom]

It seems unreasonable to suppose that it is because of a general anti-AZ attitude in the EU that has been fostered by ill considered pronouncements by various politicians. Nevertheless I do have a sneaking suspicion that this might have contributed...

Let's hope the regulators look at the data rather than the popular press.

However I wouldn't be surprised to find Russian backed dis-information bots involved eg in the 'scoop' to the original German popular press.

[Frances_iom]

...This chart might be confusing but the more negative a line goes, the greater the rate of decrease in cases. Anything above zero is an increase. The swings in the rate of decrease are puzzling. Heaven knows what happens next,...

Are we seeing the effect of the school's reopening - the current Manx lockdown was triggered by transmission in both pre-teen and teenage students (proRata the Manx infection rate is much higher than the UK)