MORE ON THE ASTRAZENECA VACCINE:

Further explanation for the pause.

First off, for those of you who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, recommendations were, and still are, that we get the first vaccine that is offered to us. As a result of getting the vaccine you reduced your risk of getting COVID 19 by 70 % and almost wiped out your risk of becoming seriously ill. You contributed enormously to slowing the spread of COVID-19.

It's easy to forget where we were at that time.

Click on this familiar graph:

https://covid-19canada.com/graphs

Follow the blue line for Ontario. There were 6098 new cases of COVID-19 in the province on April 3rd. We were locked down that same day. It was projected that without strict new measures, cases would soar to 10,000/day with a catastrophic effect on our health care system and a devastating increase in deaths due to COVID-19.

We needed to get vaccinated and we needed to do it fast!! I started giving the AstraZeneca vaccine in my office at the end of March. Also, at that time, there was word that there may be an increased risk of a rare blood clot, now called VITT. Initially, the signal for this clot was not greater than that seen in a population that had not been vaccinated but as more and more people received the AZ vaccine in the UK, that signal became larger and researchers agreed that the clots were likely being caused by the vaccine. The incidence of this rare clot was initially thought to be 1 in a million. Once it was identified as a risk of the AZ vaccine, we started to look for it.

We started to connect these rare clots that occurred in the month after vaccination to the vaccine. The clots were reported to the public health authorities who are responsible for collecting this data. In short order, the incidence of this clot was found to be between 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 250,000. Extremely rare. This information came out of the UK just as we started to ramp up the use of the AZ vaccine on our offices and pharmacies and just when we needed the vaccine the most.

As the vaccine was rolled out in Canada, public health experts, physicians and scientists were on high alert, watching for these clots and dutifully reporting them. The more you look, the more you will find. As of this week, 12 VITT clots have been reported in Ontario. That's an incidence of 1 in 60,000.

We paused the vaccine. That's how an excellent public health system works. If the motivation of health and government officials was to keep the vaccine going for the sake of saving face or using up the vaccine that we have or other nefarious political reasons, the AstraZeneca vaccine roll out would have continued and you would never have known.

That is not how we work in this country.

Some of you feel betrayed. I get that. But there was no betrayal. There is a solid, tried and true scientific process being followed by solid, trustworthy experts who are responding appropriately as new data evolves

I like this quote in which Dr. Jessica Hopkins of Public Health Ontario comments on the one in 60,000 risk based on new Ontario data.

“That’s a significant safety signal that we don’t want to ignore. Given that we are seeing the overall case numbers of COVID going down and an increase in the safety signal, at a population level, it makes sense to pause AstraZeneca because the risk of severe outcomes with VITT shouldn’t be underestimated.”

For those of you who have recently received the AZ shot, your risk of VITT is still very small. These clots occur between 4 and 28 days of vaccination, the majority within 20 days.

Symptoms to watch for: swelling in pain in one lower leg, shortness of breath and chest pain, severe abdominal pain, severe headache, blurred vision, confusion, difficulty speaking. Present to ER immediately if these symptoms occur. VITT is treatable if a patient presents early.

My heart breaks for the fact that we are all living through this very difficult time. This is the worst health crises the world has experienced in over 100 years and we are all caught up in it.

The pause in the use of the AZ vaccine is proof that Ontario's vaccine safety surveillance system is working and the experts that hold our lives in their hands are following the data and making wise decisions.

This is a process that can be trusted.

Hold tight for more news on what your second dose will be. It is coming. The mRNA vaccines ( Pfizer and Moderna) have been given to hundreds of millions of people in the world with no evidence of VITT or any other life-threatening condition. Register for a vaccine if you have not already registered. These vaccines are pulling us out of this pandemic!!! They will allow us to live without restrictions and get back to our jobs, school, our families, travel and play!

Anne-Marie

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