Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 23rd 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 22nd 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 was 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.

Pfizer’s six-month trial data suggests its Covid vaccine is causing more illness than it prevents, according to analysis by a group of Canadian medics.
The European Medicines Agency has listed a rare spinal condition as a side effect of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
A study shows a rise in PEG antibodies following mRNA vaccination was associated with higher reactogenicity and PEG interactions.
A collection of reports from 2021 finds 449 athletes who have had cardiac arrests following the Covid vaccine with 263 deaths. Reports of heart attack deaths amongst professional footballers are significantly up in 2021 compared with previous years.
A first case of myocarditis after Covid vaccine has been reported in Morocco.
Vaccination manufacturer Valneva is planning to launch its Covid vaccine in Scotland.
The JCVI has made the Pfizer Covid vaccine available for 5-11 year olds who are considered high risk or have an immunosuppressed household member.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – released new data on January 13th bringing the total to 1,033,994 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 21,745 deaths and 170,446 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to January 4th) 99,911 reports of adverse events, including 734 deaths.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events UK – up to January 5th, the MHRA reports a total of 2,746 adverse event reports, comprising 2,471 Pfizer, 248 AstraZeneca, 16 Moderna and 11 unspecified from 3,033,100 children vaccinated. This includes 49 reported cases with Pfizer and one with Moderna of myocarditis/pericarditis, suggesting a current risk of 12 cases per million doses for this age group.
Booster Doses – up to 38,050 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines up to January 5th, suggesting a reporting rate of one adverse event per 1,000 doses.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,414,293 events based on 431,482 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,932.

Pfizer (25.3 million first doses, 21.9 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 162 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 36,988 people vaccinated (684).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.1 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 103 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 21,066 people vaccinated (1,182).
Moderna (1.6 million first doses, 1.4 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 50 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 55,172 people vaccinated (29).

Overall, one in every 120 people vaccinated (0.83%) 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.