Vaccine Safety Update

This is the fifth of the weekly round-ups of Covid vaccine safety reports and news compiled by a group of medical doctors who are monitoring developments but prefer to remain anonymous in the current climate (find the fourth one here). By no means is this part of an effort to generate alarm about the vaccines or dissuade anyone from getting inoculated. It should be read in conjunction with Lockdown Sceptics‘ other posts on vaccines, which include both encouraging and not so encouraging developments. At Lockdown Sceptics we report all news about the vaccines whether positive or negative and give no one advice about whether they should or should not take them. Unlike with lockdowns, we are neither pro-vaccine nor anti-vaccine; we see our job as to report the facts, not advocate for or against a particular policy. The vaccine technology is novel and the vaccines have not yet fully completed their trials, which is why they’re in use under temporary and not full market authorisation. This has been done on account of the emergency situation and the trial data was largely encouraging on both efficacy and safety. For a summary of that data, see this preamble to the Government’s page on the Yellow Card reporting system. We publish information and opinion to inform public debate and help readers reach their own conclusions about what is best for them, based on the available data.

Questions have been raised by Trial Site News on whether Pfizer failed to perform industry standard animal testing prior to the start of human trials, following a worrying response to a Freedom of Information request from a group of Canadian physicians.
According to the FDA, in the Pfizer clinical trials on children aged 12-15, of the 1,127 children who received a first dose, no fewer than 86% experienced an adverse reaction. Of the 1,097 children who received a second dose, 78.9% experienced an adverse reaction. Several children also developed deep vein thrombosis (resulting in pulmonary embolism) post-vaccination.
Does the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein trigger certain forms of cancer? An exploration of the data after autopsies found two of eight COVID-19 sufferers with undetected thyroid cancer.
Dr Tess Lawrie of the Evidence-based Medicine Consultancy wrote an open letter to Dr June Raine, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), calling for the “cessation of the vaccination roll out while a full investigation is conducted” as “the MHRA now has more than enough evidence on the Yellow Card system to declare the COVID-19 vaccines unsafe for use in humans”.
A pre-print study from Cleveland, Ohio, reported in the Washington Examiner, finds that vaccination offers no additional protection from COVID-19 infection after a person has been previously infected.
The first post-mortem of a patient vaccinated against COVID-19, reported in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, found that the 86 year-old man had viral RNA present in all organs of his body.
The BMJ reports on a Norwegian review that finds the Pfizer Vaccine is “likely” responsible for the some of the deaths in the elderly post-vaccination.
Switzerland has approved the vaccination of children as young as 12 without their parents permission from July.
The BMJ reports further concerns regarding immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) after vaccination with AstraZeneca (also reported in the Daily Mail).
A report from Australia of a probe launched by the medicines regulator after eight people developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome following an AstraZeneca vaccination.
Italy has halted use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the under-60s after the death of a teenager with blood clots following vaccination.
There have been further reports of heart inflammation following vaccination with the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna). The Daily Mail reports on the CDC calling an urgent meeting over 226 cases of heart inflammation in teenage boys who have had the Pfizer or Moderna shots.
EudraVigilance – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system in the EU – has logged reports claiming 13,867 people have died and 1,354,336 have suffered injuries following receipt of the Covid vaccines in the EU (as of June 5th).
Suspected adverse events in the U.K. as reported in the media: Laura Hamilton (39); Jennifer Rose (65).

Summary of Adverse Events UK

According to an updated report published on June 10th (covering the period up to June 2nd), the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 922,596 events, based on 267,671 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,295.

Pfizer (14.7 million first doses, 10.7 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 374 doses, 2.9 adverse reactions (i.e., symptoms) per card, one fatal reaction in 62,562 doses.
AstraZeneca (24.5 million first doses, 15.7 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 205 doses, 3.7 adverse reactions per card, one fatal reaction in 46,581 doses.
Moderna (0.46 million first doses) has one Yellow Card in 140 doses, 2.8 adverse reactions per card, one fatal reaction in 115,000 doses.

A curiosity is that the rate of Yellow Cards went up for Moderna from an already very high level (higher than at any point for AstraZeneca) despite there being only 60,000 shots administered this week.

Key events analysis:

Acute Cardiac Events = 10,053
Anaphylaxis = 1,092
Herpes = 3,138
Headaches = 93,506
Migraine = 8,554
Blindness = 265
Spontaneous Abortions + Stillbirths = 176 + 14
Vomiting = 12,819
Facial Paralysis incl. Bell’s Palsy = 1,098
Face Swelling = 1,382
Disturbances in Consciousness = 12,316
Strokes and CNS haemorrhages = 1,920
Guillain-Barré Syndrome = 324
Tremor = 10,035
Thrombosis & Embolism (All types) = 4,963
Pulmonary Embolism – 229 (Pfizer), 1,185 (AZ), 2 (Moderna)
Deep Vein Thrombosis – 151 (Pfizer), 880 (AZ), 1 (Moderna), 7 (Unknown)
Seizures = 2,132
Paralysis = 775
Haemorrhage (All types) = 3,600
Reproductive/Breast = 9,535

Source: Pfizer; Moderna; AstraZeneca; Unspecified. “F” denotes fatal.

Stop Press: Watch a discussion on odysee about whether children should be given Covid vaccines between Dr. Ros Jones, a retired consultant paediatrician, the Rev Dr. William Philip, a senior minister and former medic, and the Rev Dr. Jamie Franklin, a church minister. It was originally posted on YouTube, but was removed after 20 minutes.