Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 29th 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 28th 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 U.K. Children’s Covid Vaccines Advisory Group (CCVAG) has warned there is no benefit and all risk in vaccinating children.
Pfizer’s informed consent documents show potential concerns regarding Covid vaccine side-effects, including myocarditis, original antigenic sin and birth defects.
Dr. Jessica Rose notes that no genotoxicity or carcinogenicity studies were done on the Covid mRNA vaccines because the World Health Organisation did not consider them necessary.
Over two million vaccine injuries have now been reported via VAERS in America.
Yorkshire Examiner reports on the death of 18 year-old Kasey Turner from a blood clot caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine. Kasey was training to be a paramedic and had received her Covid jab early, which meant that she was given the AstraZeneca jab.
The Mail reports on the death of 45 year-old Nicola Weideling of a stroke caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.
BBC News reports on the death of 34 year-old Kim Lockwood of a “catastrophic” bleed on the brain caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.
VAERS – the American version of the Yellow Card reporting system – as of March 11th reports a total of 1,183,495 reports of adverse events following Covid vaccines, including 25,461 deaths and 208,209 serious injuries.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to March 11th) 115,851 reports of adverse events, including 796 deaths.
Children (Under 18) Adverse Events U.K. – up to March 9th, the MHRA reports a total of 3,569 adverse event reports, comprising 3,275 Pfizer, 248 AstraZeneca, 24 Moderna and 22 unspecified from 3,314,700 children vaccinated. This includes 68 reported cases with Pfizer of myocarditis/pericarditis, suggesting a current risk of 15 cases per million first doses and 11 per million second doses for this age group.
Booster Doses – 46,943 adverse events have been reported across all vaccines up to March 9th from 38,437,814 people vaccinated, suggesting a reporting rate of one adverse event per 819 doses.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report, as of March 9th the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,471,106 events based on 449,324 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 2,061.

Pfizer (26.1 million first doses, 23.5 million second doses, 29.4 million third doses) now has one Yellow Card in 156 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 35,559 people vaccinated (734).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24.2 million second doses, 64,000 third doses) has one Yellow Card in 102 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 20,016 people vaccinated (1,244).
Moderna (1.6 million first doses, 1.5 million second doses, 9.0 million third doses) has one Yellow Card in 44 people vaccinated. Deaths: one in 37,209 people vaccinated (43).

Overall, one in every 117 people vaccinated (0.85%) 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 says it analyses the data prior to publication, with deaths and pregnancy conditions being notably investigated. It does not state criteria by which reports would be removed and to date has not clarified why these data vary. It is therefore unclear how many reported adverse events have been removed from the reports since reporting began in February 2021.