AstraZeneca Covid vaccine withdrawn over side effects but ‘fear more deadly’

AstraZeneca withdrawn globally after manufacturer’s admission but leading infectious diseases physician says overblown fears probably caused more deaths.

AstraZeneca conceded the vaccine, sold under the name Vaxzevria, can cause fatal blood clots.

A leading infectious diseases physician says overblown fears about the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine probably caused more deaths than the vaccine’s rare ­adverse side effects.

The response comes as the vaccine was withdrawn globally after the manufacturer admitted it can cause rare blood clots.

The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical producer withdrew the vaccine globally on Tuesday.

It comes after Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Authority discontinued use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in April last year.

On April 30 this year, AstraZeneca conceded the vaccine, sold under the name Vaxzevria, can cause fatal blood clots.

The admission came through court documents in a British class action lawsuit that sought £100m ($190m) for almost 50 victims of AstraZeneca vaccine side effects.

The application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on May 7.

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“I can see why it’s recalled because it does have probably a death rate of about 1 in 100,000 people from this clotting disorder,” the ANU’s Professor Peter Collignon said.

“But having said that, there are deaths associated with every drug and every vaccine we have – even aspirin, if you take it regularly, about 1 in 100,000 people per year die from that.

“One of the things that this side effect induced back in 2021, in my view, was the fear and the publicity about the adverse effect caused more deaths than the actual vaccine did. If you were an 80-year-old and got Covid, you had a 1 in 10 chance of dying. Yet, if you had this vaccine, you had a 1 in 100,000 chance of dying from the effect of a complication. Yet, there were a lot of people, because we had zero Covid at the time, who said, ‘oh no, I’ll wait because the Pfizer vaccine’s better’.”

The TGA provisionally approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use for people aged 18 and over as a primary course from February 15, 2021 and as a booster from February 8, 2022. In the same period, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were recommended over the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In June 2021, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended that Australians over the age of 60 avoid taking Vaxzevria.

Additional reporting: NCA NewsWire