The drastic halt to AstraZeneca shots in Canada comes from Andrew Morris, medic of Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory.
We all know the truth, even though it’s hard to accept. Our limited knowledge of these new vaccines, and their long-term effects, are obscure to the most knowledgeable of scientists in the medical field. This because we never had to face a world pandemic of this proportion correlated to the particular conditions related to the number of people travelling and population density and many other variables that make the massive amount of data hard to track. All the models to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have miserably failed, so we rely on any possible solution “jumping” on it as our only line of salvation.
Massive vaccination without proper trials should scare the population, but—as we all know—the power of mass media is way more powerful than we think. While the masses align for their vaccine just as if they were handing out the latest iPhone for free, the same people have absolutely no clue what will be inoculated in their bodies.
As much as this may seem an article coming from an anti-vaxxer, this is not. It comes as a warning to be conscious of the possible outcome and that all substances come at a risk.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the many vaccines that are out there and that is showing worrying results, but as we mentioned in a previous article on INSPADES.NEWS “Death after COVID-19 Vaccination“, no vaccine has been without adverse consequences.
The blood clotting caused by AstraZeneca has worried Ontario and Alberta experts to the point of “pausing” the distribution of the vaccine. The clotting caused by AstraZeneca is unpredictable and is “really kinda bad,” says a Toronto infectious diseases specialist. The case fatality rate ranges between 20 and 40 percent.
We are sure that there are many other reasons to stop the use of AstraZeneca, as Dr. Andres Morris stated, and also added that it should be used only where other vaccines are not available in conjunction with COVID-19 hotspots. Dr. Morris continues saying that there is “essentially no scenario” outside of the hardest hit regions where the use of AstraZeneca is justified. “There is very little excuse for us to be continuing to give AstraZeneca to Canadians” because the estimated risk of the unusual clotting disorder is higher than earlier, overly optimistic estimates, Morris said.
These statements were given at a hurried conference called Tuesday. The same concerns brought Alberta to stop AstraZeneca; while driving all remaining unvaccinated people to use the mRNA vaccines.
The VITT (vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia) passed the 60,000 based on Ontario data. “That’s a significant safety signal that we don’t want to ignore,” said Dr. Jessica Hopkins of Public Health Ontario as she continued “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.”
The EU has opted to not renew the contract with AstraZeneca.
Other countries like Norway are completely ditching AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson over the possibility to induce blood clots.
In Canada, the approximate numbers of cases are over 100,000 and the government is still debating the interruption of the AstraZeneca vaccine. We are wondering what is the number of VITT victims necessary to start to make Canadian politicians take action?
The risk of thrombosis is now 1 in 26,000. This number is too “uncomfortable” to let it slide when the province has about 50,000 remaining doses of AstraZeneca.
VITT is a condition that brings severe illness and one in 4 death.
“To me, the most important issue is, we were aware of this a month ago—we probably didn’t appreciate the frequency as much a month ago, although we suspected it,” Morris said, but our investigations brought higher numbers and more cases related to deaths after vaccinations. The most disconcerting news is that—as stated by Morris—this news was already known, while mass media did not give it the due gravitas.
Morris continues declaring that Canada will soon be “swimming in vaccines, I think that the regulators should say very clearly that, if there are no options for an mRNA vaccine and the incidence of cases is X number, then only in that situation should AstraZeneca be used.” Whether there is a different agenda in pushing for mRNA vaccines this news will result in more confusion for both people vaccinated or not.
A troubling statement coming from the University of Toronto epidemiologist David Fisman “AZ was a useful tool, but our knowledge and understanding, and our supply of other vaccines, has changed. VITT is devastating. We need to move on.”
This shows that doctors, experts, epidemiologists are just now collecting data, after inoculating the vaccine to millions. A saddening part of Fisman’s words is that we “need to move on”…the people that have died because of the complications that were known, are our mothers, fathers, and grandparents. The inoculation of something that we all have no clue what can do should never have been taken so lightly.
Morris said, meaning “we’re introducing unnecessary risk into people who have relatively low COVID risk.” but the government has not yet answered what will it be of the remaining vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine?
It seems though that the remaining 20 million doses will be donated from the American plant to India and Africa; here I believe that no indignant comment is required to follow such decision. “If we could get a billion doses of AstraZeneca to India, I would do it in a heartbeat, because so many people are dying. And yes, some of those people will die (from vaccine-induced blood clotting) but you’re going to be saving millions and millions of lives,” said Morris. I hope that this decision is not in Morris’ hands, because I firmly believe that nobody should be able to decide to play Russian Roulette with anyone’s life.
More disconcerting is that Morris is a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and infectious diseases doctor at Sinai Health and University Health Network, here I wonder how other life-threatening decisions are made?
The blood-clotting syndrome (VITT) linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine happens 4 to 28 days after being vaccinated. The mechanism isn’t entirely clear, but it’s thought the body produces antibodies that attack platelets, tiny blood cells that form clots to stop or prevent bleeding, and these are the results from studies so far known, our concern is what will happen long-term, and how is data is analyzed? The clots can cause strokes, heart attacks and loss of blood supply to a limb.
For who got the AstraZeneca first shot and had no symptoms, there is some good news. The chances of VITT after the second dose are extremely low and medics recommend getting the second shot.
There is also a study to analyze the reactions of cross vaccines and what are the results. Seems that more unnecessary human testing will be going on thanks to thousands of volunteers.
Mass media reports that “mixing vaccines issues are slim to none”, while ironically this news comes with no medical foundation. “The chances that there will be an issue with mixing vaccines are slim to none,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, a medical microbiologist and infectious diseases specialist at Toronto’s Sinai Health System. “There are a lot of things keeping me awake at night. This is not one of them”, and while this seems no concern to Dr. McGeer, I’m quite sure it will be troubling for others and also we now wonder what keeps McGeer “awake at night?”
“The rules have always been that we don’t ask people to be vaccinated if the vaccine is not a direct benefit to them,” McGeer said. “And the calculus of direct benefit to a person for the AstraZeneca vaccine at the moment is really difficult. It depends on community rates around the person, the individual involved, how well they can protect themselves, how sick they’re going to get if they happen to get COVID, what the probability of VITT is and how long people are going to have to wait for Pfizer or Moderna if they don’t choose to get AstraZeneca.”
With COVID rates dropping in most parts of the country, “that changes the calculations of risk in a non-trivial way,” McGeer said.
“If you got your AstraZeneca vaccine more than a month ago, that’s a good decision with a good outcome,” she said. “I know all sorts of people—my husband, my sister, lots of people—who got the AstraZeneca vaccine and it was a good decision at the time.”
There is though one statement that I believe we can all agree upon: “This is the thing about pandemics. New diseases. Things change. The right thing to do changes over time.”
