By the time cases of blood clotting in patients who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine had begun to emerge on the Continent (in March), Britain had already administered 11 million doses (the first ones having been given in January). No such adverse events had been reported publicly in Britain, but not for a lack of cases, according to the findings of a new investigation. Clotting cases were recorded in the UK’s Yellow Card database (a website for reporting adverse drug reactions) in January but were missed at first by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – possibly due to the algorithms it uses to interrogate UK data. The Telegraph has the story.
On March 11th, the MHRA put out a statement saying it could see no evidence of a problem…
But the MHRA was, it appears, wrong. An investigation by the Telegraph has established that signals had been firing unnoticed in the UK’s Yellow Card database for at least a month, perhaps longer.
In January, a patient suffered a brain clot following their first dose of the AstraZeneca jab… Then in early February, two similar cases followed, including a death and a life-changing CVST clot in a young adult. All had low platelets and all were reported into the Yellow Card system.
On Friday, the MHRA told the Telegraph: “We are aware of thromboembolic events that occurred in January, however, our first report was received in the week commencing February 8th…. we cannot disclose information about individual cases to protect patient and reporter confidentiality.”
… The MHRA faces serious questions as to why it did not detect the signals sooner. The issue is not that it has been left looking flatfooted or even that earlier detection would necessarily have altered its advice, but that the delay left it unable to shape international policy and confidence in what remains a vital vaccine in the fight against Covid for the world.
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, a psychologist at the University of Bristol studying the rollout of Covid vaccines, told the Financial Times on Friday: “The MHRA was slow in responding to the emergence of a specific constellation of symptoms associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine and slow to communicate what they were finding – and I am not the only one who thinks so.”
This slow repose was caused, it is said, by algorithms which were not as sensitive as the ones used by European health agencies to sift through data.
From January 4th to March 14th, a total of 532 “blood system events”, including 20 deaths, came through the UK’s Yellow Card system relating to the AstraZeneca jab, according to an analysis of published MHRA data by Dr Hamid Merchant, a pharmaceutical scientist at the University of Huddersfield. There were thousands of non-blood-related reports besides.
Of the thrombotic events recorded, four related to CVST (but no deaths were recorded), 55 were non-site specific and there were clusters of 64 and 66 cases in the lungs and deep veins respectively. There were then 267 general bleeding events and six deaths, three of which resulted from cerebral haemorrhage. Finally, there were 60 cases of thrombocytopenia, including two deaths.
To sift such data, regulators build algorithms that must balance “sensitivity” against leg-work. The more sensitive the algorithm, the more warning signals it will throw up to investigate – and many of those labour-intensive investigations will prove fruitless.
It is not known exactly what parameters the MHRA set but it is clear they were not as sensitive as those used by some regulators in Europe.
The MHRA says it followed a principle of applying “statistical techniques which can tell us if we are seeing disproportionately more cases than we would expect to see based on what is known about background rates of illness in the absence of vaccination”. This is reflected in the regulator’s initial statement when it said clotting reports were not above normal.
But other countries turned the sensitivity gauge up to 11. “Our policy is if it is associated with a death, or very serious adverse drug reaction, we will look into it right away,” David Benee Olsen, senior advisor at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, told the Telegraph.
Reports suggest that the MHRA was more rigorous in its examination of data relating to the Covid vaccine produced by Pfizer. The Telegraph clarifies that “there is no suggestion whatever that the MHRA covered up the reporting of CVST with thrombocytopenia – it just did not spot the still unproven issue as early as others”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Canada has reported a second case of rare blood clots with low platelets after vaccination with AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine in a week.
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Spotted this earlier and was really shocked. I don’t know anything about this querdenker group but investigating them on the grounds of ‘sedition’ is sinister.
querdenker = lateral thinking, in my rough off the cuff german.
This is old news. Basically any organisation in Germany who are suspected of undermining the constitution, and this is more often than not the far right but certainly also includes the far left, are investigated by the federal constitutional court. The AFD are a far right political party with around 10% representation in the German parliament who have struggled, and are struggling, to avoid the Nazi label. It must be said that that the AFD are the only major party with lockdown sceptic policies. The Querdenker is a movement which is opposed to repressive government policies, not just those associated with Covid.
Think what you want about the whole process, and I personally believe it is overdone with respect to putting the Nazi label on political opposition and movements, and while the process may not be quite fair it is at least very open. There are huge open political discussions and debates to decide if Movement Y or Party X will be examined by the constitutional court, the court cannot just decide by itself to investigate. And on top of that the court is not a puppet of the government; many government complaints have been rejected by the due legal process of this court. So while the Querdenker movement may be being investigated by the constitutional court, I’m actually not sure if they are, the outcome is by far unclear.
In addition to all this anyone can complain to the constitutional court, not just the government. I’m not sure but I could certainly believe that the German government is the subject of the most complaints. Recently in the German media it was reported that the FDP (liberal opposition party) are starting a complaint about the government imposing an automatic curfew.
So I would suggest to everyone reading this comments section that they note the fact that the German people do have a constitution and that this constitution is a written document designed to defend the inalienable rights of every person in Germany (not just citizens) and is used as a measure for legal purposes to judge if the rights of the German people are in anyway endangered and is itself rigorously defended by the German state through an independent court. Correct me I am wrong but I am relatively sure that there is no constitution for the United Kingdom and as far as I can work it out the “freedoms” of the UK people are rapidly being eroded by the stealth tactics of unknown sources (government, media and whatever).
Which system would you prefer?
I´ve read the AfD manifesto. It´s far – right only if you believe BoJo is a Conservative…..
Good analysis. I make no ‘Brexit’ comment intended, pro or anti, but the knowledge in UK of how its neighbours are run is very low. Mainly because the UK media and public attention has always been US-biased.
But will you agree that Germany is currently undergoing internal pressures partly because Mutter is standing down, partly because of realignment to the East and partly because the ‘wind generation’ chickens have come home to roost. Then there is covid and its use to ‘control’ events.
Well it seems neither system works, doesn’t it?
Ultimately the people are the only guarantors of their own freedom.
I think in general it ought to be easier to have a clear written constitution to point at when fighting tyranny, but it has done the Germans little good.
I am not reassured by the fact that there are debates about who can be investigated. If you believe in freedom of speech, which more or less no-one really does any more, if they ever did, then why would you need investigations of this kind. There are plenty of existing laws against obviously criminal behaviour. As soon as you accept you may want to investigate people for “undermining the constitution” it’s open to abuse.
Thank you and Peyrole for your kind words. Indeed neither systems work too well, as has been shown by the quite ridiculous Covid restrictions in both countries. However I maintain that a written document forms a much better basis for protecting the people than the wishy washy “good intensions” of the British “constitution”. Also the debates that go on regarding the instigation of procedures to investigate a particular movement or party surely cannot be regarded as anything else other than healthy democracy? After all the debates are held in what is called “parliament”, and this name is certainly given for a reason.
I would additionally like to say that some of the comments on this thread, yours of course excepted, show a complete immaturity to what is presently going on in the world; intelligent input to any debate looks different from an idiotic an insulting translation of a policeman’s badge.
Anyway, that’s enough talk from me because, as other commentators have said, it’s not all about words. It looks like more serious action may be required.
Germany had a rich history of oppression and tyranny to draw on.
Mind you, our native Fascists are doing a great job of jackbooting a country that once had a tradition of fighting for freedom.
As do the English so say many Welsh Irish, Scots. English soldiers wearing hobnail boots, not jackboots (England could not afford jackboots)
Oh FFS 77 are here again.
fon has been in the officers mess sneaking a brandy or two.
I can roughly translate words on the badge to say “National office for Defence of the constitution, security police” Sounds omminously like STASI (official state security service) of the old east germany. Having visited both sides of the wall, I can say that Germans on either side did not change that much over the 60 years of separation. In some ways they were more friendly and relaxed on the commie side! yes that was a surprise to me as well!!
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz = Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is Federal Germany’s domestic spying agency, intended to find Neo-Nazis and (for a while) Commies etc. The badge is ‘Sicherheitsdienst’ or ‘Security Service’ (the chap may be the premises security rather than an agent for the field) but ‘SD’ was the ‘intelligence’ wing of the SS back in its day, a most vile bunch. Seems a mocking choice of words for a badge.
I’d be incredibly suprised if this was only happening in Germany. I’m sure other governments have declared lockdown sceptics, as well as conspiracy theorists, a threat to national security and are monitoring them one way or another.
George Orwell demonstrated it’s only natural for the state use its machinery. The trouble starts when there is nothing above the state. It has always been a prpblem with the English version of democracy, some suggest a written constitution might solve the crisis, it has not worked in Germany or the US evidentally. Here we labour under the belief that The Commons exercises contol to restrain the excesses of the State. The jury is still out on that.
I half expect that I will be in some ‘educational camp’ before the end of the year. At least I’ll be with some of the best people.
I’m happy to say you are unlikely to be deemed significant enough to bother with. It is both a blessing and a curse of the English syst em, if you ever are deemed significant enough to bother with you will be brought into the establishment.That is how the English system is meant to operate, you see.
A bit of insider knowledge.
It’s good to know I will be left alone.
Please do not believe a word of what Reuters says about Querdenker being rechts. They are absolutely middle of the road people, many who have never in their life been on demos or politically involved.
Querdenken has a huge popularity as they are not affiliating themselves with any leanings. They fight for the personal freedoms and freedom of speech as laid down in the Grundgesetz.
Yes, they are being watched by the Spy Behoerden, as there are a few ex Stasi people in government who cannot let go.
Thanks for the insight Silke. I suppose we could have guessed that would be the case…
‘Germans Acting German’
…bless ’em, they never change.
The Germans were and are always the most zealous and thorough in everything they do.
Whether it’s engineering, obeying and executing orders, denunciating, fascism, socialism or Covidianism.
They only fooled themselves, and us, for a while that they have changed.
I am ready to hand in my passport now. Not my country and people anymore.
More Orwellian dystopia.
The blue shirt has a badge with the word ‘Sicherheitsdienst’ on it, presumably the premises security, not an agent of the BfV, but the word has a sickening and evil resonance with the SD, the ‘intelligence’ wing of the SS.
There was a movement in Germany some years ago called the ‘Anti-Germans’ (who seemed to be ‘Anarchists’ who so hated ‘West Germany’ (but not, it seemed the ‘East’), that some of them produced a song ‘Bomber Harris do it again’. It probably didn’t occur to them that theirs was the sort of fanaticism that led MRAF Harris to do what he got done, and that the best answer was to be more reasoned, but anyway, I do wonder if they had a point buried beneath all that.