Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 20th of the 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 19th 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 the Daily Sceptic‘s other posts on vaccines, which include both encouraging and not so encouraging developments. At the Daily Sceptic we report all the 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 reporting the facts, not advocating 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. (Dr Tess Lawrie in June wrote an open letter to Dr June Raine, head of the MHRA, arguing that: “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 claim that has been ‘fact checked’ here.) Boris Johnson said in October that being double vaccinated “doesn’t protect you against catching the disease, and it doesn’t protect you against passing it on”. 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.

Japan’s health ministry has warned about the potential serious side effects of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Eleven Australian nurses have talked publicly about the vaccine side effects they’ve seen and another nurse has reported the reactions she is seeing on her shift.
A ‘wall of secrecy’ has been put up around Pfizer contracts as the company is accused of profiteering.
A release of documents requested by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency group (PHMPT) shows 1,200 vaccine-related deaths connected with the Pfizer vaccine over a 90-day period.
In the UK, Astra Zeneca has proposed what causes the blood clots related to its Covid vaccine.
Expert group HART has asked why the data for the first two weeks after vaccination is being excluded.
The BMJ reports on the House of Lords decision that there is not enough data to support mandatory NHS vaccinations.
The UK Government has published guidelines for health professionals dealing with myocarditis and pericarditis in people who’ve had the Covid vaccine.
JCVI member Professor Adam Finn has argued that the main benefit of vaccinating 5-11 year olds is indirect protection of adults.
Nature Medicine has published a paper on neurological problems after Covid vaccination.
A paper has been published on genital necrosis associated with cutaneous thrombosis after the vaccine.
A massive increase in still births has been reported in Canada.
A five year old girl died post-vaccine in America.
A systematic review of eye-related issues post-vaccine has been published.
Deaths among children aged 10-14 in England and Wales are 44% higher than the five-year-average since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in their age group began.
Dr Aseem Malhotra stated that a researcher has seen an increase in heart attacks following COVID-19 vaccination, but is loathe to publish it due to fears of losing funding in the future.
New adverse-event case reports include a 34 year-old woman reported in a journal in China and a 46 year-old man reported in the American Journal of Case Reports.
A further study indicates that vaccinated people are as contagious in spreading the COVID-19 virus as unvaccinated, particularly in congregate settings such as prisons.
The European Medicines Agency has recommended Pfizer approval for children aged 5 to 11.
Boris Johnson has said the UK needs to have a “national conversation” about mandatory vaccination but Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said he has “no interest” in the policy, adding: “My view is that it’s unethical and also at a practical level it wouldn’t work.”
The Novavax vaccine clinical trial results have been reported in three study papers, indicating some severe adverse reactions:
- UK trial – systemic adverse events were much higher in the vaccine group and more than doubled following the second dose. Adverse reactions were also higher in younger age groups. There was one case of myocarditis in the vaccine group and none in the placebo, and two deaths related to COVID-19 were reported in the vaccine group compared with one in the placebo group.
- South Africa trial – Medically-attended adverse events and serious adverse events occurred more often in the vaccine group than in the placebo group (13 versus six medically-attended adverse events and two versus one serious adverse events).
- Animal trials in baboons and mice showed that functional antibody immunity induced by this nanoparticle vaccine and Matrix-M adjuvant depends on both the adjuvant and antigen components.
Musician Matthew Dibble, 40, died after suffering a “catastrophic” brain haemorrhage “induced by his first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine”, an inquest has heard.
The BBC reports that Kerry Hurt from Rotherham suffered a stroke after undergoing surgery for a blood clot two weeks after having the AstraZeneca jab.
“Fit and healthy” mother-of-two Michelle Barlow, 51, died from blood clot “likely” to have been caused by AstraZeneca Covid jab, an inquest has heard.
More than half of reported Omicron variant cases in the UK have happened in people who’ve had two jabs.
Eudravigilance – the European version of the Yellow Card Reporting system – as of December 4th has reported 2,970,644 reactions from 1,288,780 reports with 32,652 fatalities.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – released new data on November 26th bringing the total to 927,740 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 19,532 deaths and 146,720 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to November 22nd) 85,276 reports of adverse events, including 675 deaths.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events UK – up to November 24th, the MHRA report a total of 2,130 adverse event reports, comprising 1,873 Pfizer, 243 AstraZeneca (with a reporting rate of one yellow card per 47 doses), six Moderna and eight unspecified from 2,629,300 doses given.
Booster Doses – up to 12,248 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report published on December 2nd, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,298,826 events based on 395,049 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,814.

Pfizer (24.5 million first doses, 20.8 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 179 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 39,013 people vaccinated (628).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.1 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 105 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 21,919 people vaccinated (1,136).
Moderna (1.5 million first doses, 1.3 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 79 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 83,333 people vaccinated (18).

Overall, one in every 129 people vaccinated (0.78%) have experienced a Yellow Card adverse event. The MHRA has previously estimated that the Yellow Card reporting rate may be approximately 10% of actual figures. Note that sometimes in Yellow Card reporting, the numbers of adverse events (including fatalities) will be lower than the previous week. The Yellow Card system is a passive reporting system, so in theory this should not happen as all reports should be cumulative. However, the MHRA say they analyse the data prior to publication, with deaths and pregnancy conditions being notably investigated. They do not state criteria by which reports would be removed and to date have not clarified why this data varies. It is therefore unclear how many reported adverse events have been removed from the reports since reporting began in February 2021.