This week, the government announced that people under-30 in the UK will be offered an alternative Covid vaccine to the AstraZeneca jab, due to the concerns across Europe linking it to rare blood clots.
After several countries in Europe suspended use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine following an extremely small number of reports of blood clots, a review by the UK drugs regulator found that by the end of March 79 people had suffered rare blood clots after vaccination - 19 of whom had died.
The regulator said this was not proof the jab had caused the clots, but that the link was getting firmer.
Meanwhile, the EU's medicines regulator stated that the unusual blood clots should be listed as a possible 'very rare' side effect of the AstraZeneca jab, but maintained that the benefits outweighed the risks. The World Health Organization has also said that the link between the vaccine and blood clots was 'plausible' but not confirmed, stating that the clotting incidents were 'very rare' among nearly 200 million people who have received the jab worldwide.
However, earlier this month ‘How to cancel coronavirus vaccine appointment’ was trending higher than ‘How to book coronavirus vaccine appointment’ on Google Trends.
According to Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity at Oxford University, where the AstraZeneca vaccine was developed, the benefits of the jab outweigh the risks. He told the BBC that safety has been a priority throughout the vaccine's development last year.
'We are reassured to see that safety monitoring continues under the close scrutiny of regulators and public health authorities as the vaccine is rolled out around the world,' Pollard explained. 'The identification of rare cases of blood clots, which might be associated with the vaccine, shows that the safety system works, and has also allowed MHRA and EMA to conclude that the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh the risks, while putting in measures to help mitigate any possible risk.
'The pandemic coronavirus continues to be a huge threat to people throughout the world, and we continue with our mission to support global vaccination, not for profit, for the benefit of humanity,' he continued.
The social media response to the news has been compelling. As soon as it was revealed countries were pausing vaccine rollouts, many highlighted just how disproportionate it seemed considering how many other medicines pose risks of blood clots – and much worse.
‘We do know there is a link between smoking, or sitting still for long periods of time, or being pregnant, and blood clots,’ Dr Hilary Jones told ITV’s Good Morning Britain. ‘People have blood clots because they’re on the pill, because they smoke, because they have trauma on the leg. There are all sorts of reasons why people have blood clots. The number of blood clots European countries have seen are 30 among the population of 17 million who have had the jab. The risk is lower than we see in the normal population. I would like to reassure people that the vaccine is safe.’
The risk of blood clots with the contraceptive pill
That point about the pill was poignant, because the most ironic reaction to all of this is just how high the risk of blood clots is for the contraceptive pill without anywhere near this level of hysteria. According to research published in [The Lancet](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736){href='https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(0561660-1/fulltext?version=printerFriendly)' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'}, oral contraceptives increase the risk of blood clots by three times – with further risk in cases of obesity or if there is a family history of blood clots.
That means 5-12 women in every 10,000 will develop a blood clot within 12 months of being on a contraceptive pill – compared to the 37 people of 17million who have had the AstraZeneca vaccine (which, as stated earlier, could easily have occurred naturally as would happen in a number of people this size).
It seems though, many people were unaware of the risk of blood clots in taking the contraceptive pill. Right now, ‘the pill blood clots,’ and ‘contraceptive pill blood clots’ is trending on Google as people search for more information.
It’s reminding many of the sheer lack of safety concern when it comes to women’s health issues at large. According to UN figures from 2019, 842 million people use hormonal contraceptives – which would include the contraceptive pill. The contraceptive pill is known to be the most popular among all types of contraception in the UK, with figures obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act showing almost nine in 10 women who receive contraception from the GP or pharmacies take either the combined pill or ‘mini pill’.
Despite that, it’s incredibly difficult to find figures specific to the UK about just how many women are on the pill. On the website for sexual health company FPA, it reads ‘there are no comprehensive published health service statistics on patterns of contraceptive use in the UK’ – meaning, figures can only come from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Omnibus Survey covering Great Britain, and the Continuous Household Survey covering Northern Ireland.
If the health service doesn’t even cares enough to undertake comprehensive research into how many women take hormonal contraception’s, it’s no wonder there is little concern about the long list of risks associated with taking the pill. Which, for your information, include ‘minor side effects’ (the NHS website words, not ours) like ‘mood swings, nausea, breast tenderness and headaches’ plus an increased risk of higher blood pressure – and a low risk of serious side effects such as ‘blood clots and cervical cancer’.
Much work has also been done to understand the link between the pill and depression, however the NHS website states that ‘further research is needed’ to understand evidence.
Ultimately, all this goes to show that women’s health is yet another area ignored and cast aside while we pay the price.
If you're worried about taking the contraceptive pill, visit the FPA website, or the**** Brook website, for more information and to talk to someone about your options.
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