Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 24th 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 23rd 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.

The Royal College of GPs has issued a statement opposing mandatory vaccination for NHS workers and there are reports that the policy is set to be put on hold.
The World Health Organisation has lowered the recommended age children are eligible for the Covid vaccine to five years old, whilst at the same time calling for the lifting of international travel restrictions for unvaccinated people and stating that there is no evidence that children and young people need booster shots.
The BMJ has called for access to the raw research data into the Covid vaccinations.
The U.S. CDC has published a report of COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations by vaccination status for California and New York which show that natural immunity from Covid infection offered better protection than vaccination during the Delta wave.
A proposed Arizona law would make employers who mandate the Covid vaccines liable for any adverse effects.
Austria has created a ‘Covid lottery’ with cash prizes to entice people to get the vaccine.
The Czech Government has ended all vaccine mandates.
Belgium no longer recommends Moderna for the first two vaccinations for people under 31 years of age.
The Norwegian government has offered the Covid vaccine to 5-11 year olds on a voluntary basis, with no general recommendation for this age group.
Case report in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases of constrictive pericarditis following Covid vaccination.
Eudravigilance – the European version of the Yellow Card Reporting system – as of January 15th has reported 3,354,705 reactions from 1,389,404 reports with 37,927 fatalities.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – as of January 14th reports a total of 1,053,830 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 22,193 deaths and 174,864 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to January 9th) 101,186 reports of adverse events, including 737 deaths.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events UK – up to January 12th, the MHRA reports a total of 2,868 adverse event reports, comprising 2,591 Pfizer, 250 AstraZeneca, 16 Moderna and 11 unspecified from 3,033,100 children vaccinated. This includes 53 reported cases with Pfizer and one with Moderna of myocarditis/pericarditis, suggesting a current risk of 13 cases per million first doses and 15 per million second doses for this age group.
Booster Doses – up to 41,060 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines up to January 12th from 36,079,875 people vaccinated, suggesting a reporting rate of one adverse event per 879 doses.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report published on January 20th, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,429,071 events based on 436,173 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,954.

Pfizer (25.5 million first doses, 22.2 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 160 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 36,638 people vaccinated (696).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.2 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 103 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 20,924 people vaccinated (1,190).
Moderna (1.6 million first doses, 1.4 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 48 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 53,333 people vaccinated (30).

Overall, one in every 119 people vaccinated (0.84%) 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.