"GOSSIP is NOT SCIENCE!"

I heard this on Global National tonight and I really appreciated it. AstraZeneca vaccines have been rolled out to some physicians in the province who have been asked to be part of a small pilot project to see if using your family doctor's office for future COVID-19 vaccinations is feasible. Please do not call your doctor's office to see if they have a vaccine for you. Your doctor's office will reach out to you if you are eligible. We have not received enough vaccine to give to all of our patients between the ages of 60 and 64. Some offices are using a random lottery system to determine who gets the vaccine and others are booking appointments on a first come first serve basis. We do not have control over the number of vaccines that are delivered to our offices but should this pilot project be successful, it is expected that we will receive more vaccine in the coming weeks. The vaccine that both doctor's offices and pharmacies are receiving is the AstraZeneca vaccine. I will admit that it is a big deal that 5 countries in the European Union have temporarily suspended the use of this vaccine. It would make me second guess whether or not I should get this vaccine if I were not a physician who is following the research closely. You are totally entitled to be uncomfortable but please, base that discomfort on the facts, not gossip and not Google MD or any other social media site that is not a reputable medical source of information. You know what? I want to apologize to all of you. Politics, science, medicine and social media have all mixed together into a sometimes confusing mess making everyone so anxious and you do not deserve to feel more anxiety. So, let's get the facts straight. The AstraZeneca vaccine is a very safe and effective vaccine that does not cause an increased risk of developing blood clots. Remember when folks were upset because Health Canada took so long to approve this vaccine? I am glad they took that long. We are very conservative and risk averse in this country when it comes to medications and vaccines. We take longer than most countries to approve treatments that have sometimes been used for years in other countries before we approve them. Our approach is not different with these COVID-19 vaccines. We took our time. Many European countries rushed their approval process. I think that has left them feeling a little vulnerable when if comes to the risks that may be associated with these vaccines. As a result, they may have over-reacted to the alleged concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine. Here is what every European country that has suspended the use of this vaccine has decided to do. They are waiting for Europe's bloc-wide medicines regulator ( Health Canada equivalent) to investigate a very small number of serious blood clotting issues. Perhaps it may have been better to do this 'due diligence' before they approved the vaccine? Maybe. That regulator, the European Medicines Agency, is expected by Thursday to give it's verdict on safety and potential risks from a review of the reported cases. The agency said that while the investigation is going on, “the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing COVID-19, outweigh the risks of side effects.” They are recommending that countries keep using the vaccine and they have already stated there is no evidence of a link between the reported blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine. AstraZeneca has shown that there have been 37 reports of blood clots out of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the 27-country European Union and Britain. They can't fake this stuff. They are being watched by every scientific community in the world....very, very closely watched. There is no evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine carries an increased risk of clots. Those 17 million people who received the vaccine are still at risk for having their heart attacks their cancers and their blood clots and unless the vaccine causes many more than what is expected in a given population at anytime, you cannot link the vaccine to the negative health outcomes. The World Health Organization has also said that the data does not suggest the vaccine caused the clots and that people should continue to be immunized. “Many thousands of people develop blood clots annually in the EU for different reasons,” the European Medicines Agency said. The incidence in vaccinated people "is not higher than that seen in the general population.” Our ever cautious, ever risk averse, ever conservative Health Canada agrees and they have already done their homework. Take home message: It is much more risky to remain unvaccinated if you are an at risk population based on age, exposure risk and underlying health issues. COVID-19 is by far much more deadly than 37 blood clots in 17 million people. Not to downplay the devastation the a person experiences who develops a serious blood clot. Take the first vaccine you are offered and trust the science. Governments are fearful and some of their decisions, like temporarily suspending the use of a very good vaccine, are not based on science, they are based on that fear. We need governments and science working together. No question. But what we do not need is mis-information on social media and gossip to delay the vaccination of our citizens. Anne-Marie Please share For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here: https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/ And if you'd like to help Bracelet of Hope work towards making sure that Lesotho has access to these vaccines, donate here: https://www.braceletofhope.ca/ways-to-