Vaccine Safety Update

This is the 14th 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 13th 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.) 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.

On October 7th, the deaths reported as adverse events from vaccination in Taiwan overtook the number of deaths following Covid infection.
Infection rates in England in vaccinated people aged 40-49 is now more than double the rate in the unvaccinated. Evidence now suggests that vaccinated people can spread the Delta variant and a study has shown that six months after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, antibody levels in healthcare workers had decreased substantially.
The first case of vaccine induced thrombotic thrombocytopaenia following the J&J vaccine outside of the USA was documented.
Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have temporarily halted the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for people under the age of 30 due to heart risks.
There has been a case of reactivation of hepatitis C infection following the Pfizer vaccination.
A large number of studies are increasingly showing evidence of robust natural immunity from natural Covid infection.
There have been calls for clearer ONS data on the rise in deaths of young males in England and Wales. Investigation of official ONS data indicates that since the Covid vaccine has been rolled out to teens, there has been a significant increase in deaths in this age group.
The Senate in France voted against making the Covid vaccine mandatory.
EudraVigilance – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system in the EU – has logged (up to October 9th) 1,038,776 reports of 2,536,526 adverse events, including 27,242 deaths.
DAEN Australia – the equivalent of the Yellow Card reporting system – has logged (up to September 29th) 63,672 reports of 204,746 adverse events, including 566 deaths.

Summary of Adverse Events in the U.K.

According to an updated report published on October 14th, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has recorded a total of 1,228,991 events based on 372,878 reports. The total number of fatalities reported is 1,719.

Pfizer (22.7 million first doses, 19.8 million second doses) now has one Yellow Card in 188 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 40,391 people vaccinated (562).
AstraZeneca (24.9 million first doses, 24 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 106 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 22,514 people vaccinated (1,106).
Moderna (1.5 million first doses, 1.2 million second doses) has one Yellow Card in 90 people vaccinated. Deaths: 1 in 75,000 people vaccinated (20).

Overall, one in every 132 people vaccinated (0.76%) 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.