Risk, Reward and the AstraZeneca Vaccine Podcast | News

The government’s Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunization said this week that people aged 18 to 29 who do not have a high risk of Covid should have the option of getting an alternative jab to the AstraZeneca vaccine if one is available in their territory. It follows the accumulation of evidence linking jab with rare blood clots, although no definitive causal link has yet been established. The move has sparked fears of a loss of confidence in the widespread AstraZeneca vaccine at a time when the UK is coming out of lockdown.

The observer̵

7;s science editor, Robin McKie, Narrator Anushka asthana that the risk of blood clots is still incredibly low: current evidence puts the risk at about one in every 250,000 shots. But given that there are other vaccines to offer, he says this caution makes sense.

More than 30 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine in the UK, and a study by Imperial College researchers suggests that the link between Covid-19 and death is broken. However, other studies point to a more serious third wave of the virus if the vaccination rate falls.

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