Chris Presses For Vaccine Benefits & Risks Updates & Evidence
Christopher Chope Conservative, Christchurch
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the list of benefits and risks of vaccination against covid-19 published on the NHS website was last (a) reviewed and (b) updated; and what the evidential basis is for clotting problems being the only extremely rare risk identified.
Maggie Throup The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The information on COVID-19 vaccines side effects and safety on the National Health Service website was last reviewed on 28 April 2022. This information is currently reviewed every six months or as new evidence emerges. The last update was made on 15 February 2022 to amend a link.
The Summary of Product Characteristics and patient information leaflets for COVID-19 vaccines list the risks associated with these products and where possible provides the frequency at which these events are expected to occur. This ranges from common - affecting more than in one in 10 people - to very rare - affecting less than one in 10,000. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s weekly COVID-19 vaccines Adverse Drug Reaction report estimates that the overall incidence rate of blood clots occurring with lowered platelets is 15.8 per million for first doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which is referred to as ‘extremely rare’. There are other adverse reactions considered to be extremely rare which are associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, including transverse myelitis, immune thrombocytopenia and capillary leak syndrome.
- ENDS -
