Covid Qld: AstraZeneca saved most lives despite public’s fears

It was the Covid-19 vaccine that instilled fear in Queenslanders, with even the chief health officer warning us off. But new data tells a different story.

The Covid-19 vaccine that instilled fear into Queenslanders has now been hailed the biggest lifesaver.

New research shows that AstraZeneca is the jab that saved the most lives last year, with the data showing the alarm that gripped the state over the vaccine was unfounded.

Infectious disease expert Paul Griffin said that mistakes were made when then chief health officer Jeannette Young warned Queenslanders under 40 not to have the jab due to deaths from blood clotting.

The clotting side-effects were rare with only two to three people in every 100,000.

“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die. We have had very few deaths due to Covid in Australia in people under the age of 50 and wouldn’t it be terrible that our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic, died because of the vaccine,” Ms Young said in August.

Prof Griffin said that lessons could be learned that any comments made to the public about vaccinations can have a huge impact.

“What was said came from a place of concern but it did instil fear into Queenslanders about the vaccine. The new data shows that the vaccine was very efficient in what it was designed for and that was to save masses of lives,” Prof Griffin said.

The University of Oxford’s AstraZeneca was the first vaccine over the line in the race to protect the world from the deadly virus and was the first to be rolled out to elderly Queenslanders.

The new data released by Airfinity, a London-based data firm, shows AstraZeneca saved 6.3 million lives globally followed by Pfizer which saved 5.9 million. The findings build on a study last month estimating that all vaccines saved about 20 million lives in the first year of the campaign, more than half of them in wealthier countries.

Airfinity said the AstraZeneca shot went first to older-age groups in high-income counties and nations with more vulnerable healthcare systems. The firm reported that Sinovac and Moderna vaccines saved two million and 1.7 million lives respectively.

Prof Griffin said that AstraZeneca got a bad name in Australia simply because the vaccine was heavily monitored for safety and any problems were made very transparent.

“Our stringent monitoring in this country is not a failing. It has been a good thing. We can trust our vaccines,” he said.

Originally published as Covid Qld: AstraZeneca saved most lives despite public’s fears