Latest research on vaccine side effects, immune reaction and thrombosis risks | COVID-19 Special

[Music] vaccines are turning the tide but they're not without risks especially for women they've been rare cases of blood clotting even fatal ones leading some governments to slow down vaccinations we have now today chosen to continue our vaccine rollout without estracinica but each delay puts more lives at risk as the coronavirus spreads it's a balancing act between speed and caution in the fight against covert 19. the risk of dying from covert is much higher than getting a blood clot from a vaccine but even more concerning is a new report from oxford university that shows catching the coronavirus puts you at even more risk of a deadly blood clot in a moment we'll talk to a vaccine scientist at johns hopkins university first this report astrazeneca's covid19 vector vaccine has hardly been out of the headline since last december until now it's been instrumental in the success of the uk's vaccination program but from now on its use there will be restricted to those over 30 years of age there have been worries in the european union about its effectiveness and potential side effects germany initially restricted its use to under 65s now berlin is recommending it purely for over 60s those worries were compounded by several cases of a rare thrombosis type following astrazeneca vaccinations some of them fatal the european medicines agency in amsterdam felt it was time to take a stance on the jab it's director stressing that the benefits of the anti-viral agent far outweigh any risks this vaccine has proven to be highly effective it prevents severe disease and hospitalization and it is saving lives vaccination is extremely important in helping us in the fight against covet 19 and we need to use the vaccines we have to protect us from the devastating effects scientists have been investigating the reports and circumstances of the thrombosis britain's medicines and health care regulator agency says 20 million doses of the astrazeneca vaccine had been administered by the end of march with 79 cases of thrombosis later reported 19 of which were fatal the cause is thought to be a rare immune reaction most of them presented some two weeks after inoculation there are no apparent risk groups such as age or sex several countries like germany france and canada have tightened restrictions on the use of astrazeneca's covid19 vaccine others have suspended it totally waiting for the ema's verdict it has now recommended the continued unrestricted use of the astrazeneca jab regardless of any rare cases of thrombosis so mixed messages there about vaccine safety to unpack this let's bring in corso talacci's a vaccine scientist and infectious disease physician at johns hopkins university in baltimore maryland so let's start with astrazeneca as as we heard that's been given to more than half the adults in britain and is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives i'd gladly take it but authorities here in germany and other countries are blocking its use and offering no timely alternative isn't that in itself putting people's lives in danger so when you have a pandemic that's out of control like we have with the kovic 19 pandemic then any facts then you have to weigh the risks and benefits of any available preventive such as a vaccine or treatment and for the astrazeneca vaccine it has been shown to have saved millions of lives already and so the the potential benefits might outweigh any risks now there are some very serious risks associated with it in very very rare circumstances and i think i think each country but also each individual needs to be able to weigh that risk benefit equation for themselves to decide whether or not they're willing to take that risk for the potential for the protection against the virus when you have a vaccine that's available and that's not being used people can die and that's something that each each government and each person needs to weigh and this isn't only a problem with astrazeneca we've now got johnson johnson six million immunized in the united states and yet it's on hold because six people may have had side effects isn't one in a million an acceptable risk level during times like these so i think that the equation in the united states is a little bit different because we've vaccinated so many of our high-risk individuals already and we have two other approved vaccines that are that are more available than the johnson johnson vaccine even is um and i and i think whereas europe has been gathering information about the astrazeneca vaccine for several weeks we are just starting to learn about the any potential risk associated with the johnson and johnson vaccine and so i think the pause is to gather that information to truly understand what that risk is is it one in a million or is there something higher is it even um associ is the the clots that we saw with with in those unfortunate women associated with it and so i think the um the the pause is appropriate while we gather that information and make a decision about the risk benefits but i think in places where there's the virus is increasing in terms of the transmission and there is no alternative vaccine that it should be seriously considered to use this vaccine while that data is being gathered in the u.s the calculus is a little bit different because we do have two alternative vaccines that don't seem to have that same risk the strange thing though is that and this is what will get many people especially women worried about this is that those people affected by clotting were women in a certain age group and it's been a similar profile for astrazeneca as well so why is it being blocked for everyone or everyone under 60 or so i am that is probably uh due to logistics and programmatic issues but also because while we're gathering that information we need to understand better what that risk is and who truly is at risk while the majority people who have been affected so far seem to be women there were men in europe who have had this unusual rare blood clot happen um there was one man in the trial in the united states who had this unusual blood clot occur and so we need to gather that information and understand the process better and who truly is at risk to be able to maybe target the vaccines at people who are at lower risk but you know it's interesting that you say that because there's a lot of adverse events from vaccines that seem to particularly affect women and especially women in their reproductive years um and that's probably because our hormones are different than in the pre and post-reproductive period and also from men um and that may put us at um that may give us an advantage or a benefit but they may also put us at um some increased risk from the adverse events if you look at the anaphylaxis cases that are happening after the mrna vaccines in the united states the vast majority of them are happening in women as well so there's just there's a difference in the biology between men and women that we're just starting to understand can we go as far as saying that vector vaccines could be the problem in terms of the the clotting that's been seen exactly yeah in terms of adverse events in terms of clotting and or adverse events so each vaccine is going to have its different adverse events each vaccine platform has different kinds of adverse events that happen um and so for the vectored vaccines um especially for astrazeneca potentially for for johnson and johnson as well it looks like clotting may be an increased risk factor um that we didn't see with the mrna vaccines and in the united states over 100 million people have now been vaccinated with one of the two mrna vaccines without the same sort of signal that we've seen with the um with the with the with the antivirus vaccines but this hasn't necessarily been seen with other adenovirus vaccines in the past so we need to better understand what is happening and i think that this pause allows scientists and researchers to really dig deep into each of these cases to better understand what's happening and also to understand the mechanisms a little bit better and it's been fantastic having you on the show explaining to us what all this means kosovo talat of johns hopkins university thank you very much for being on the show today thank you very much take care whatever the risks vaccines are here to stay for now more on that from derek williams will we only have to be vaccinated once or will we need regular booster shots once again the straightforward answer is we don't know yet but a lot of experts do think it's very likely that even fully vaccinated people will need booster shots in the future there are a couple of different reasons why that might become necessary the first involves the fact that the vaccines we're using now have been approved for emergency use because they were safe in the vast majority of people who've gotten them and also extremely effective at least in the short term but we still don't know how long that effectiveness on average will last don't forget it's been under a year since the very first subjects and trials received their first shots but based on what we know about naturally acquired immunity to the disease and what we know about other coronaviruses the general expectation among immunologists appears to be that most vaccinated people will remain largely immune to covet 19 for at least six months and likely retain at least some immunity for a year or two assuming the virus doesn't mutate faster than we think however nearly all the experts i've read now also think that down the line variants of sars cov2 will change enough that we'll have to modify current vaccines at some point so the companies that make them are already in trials looking at possible ways to prolong vaccine-induced immunity and a lot of those trials will involve giving test subjects booster shots of tweaked vaccines you heard it from derrick williams i'm ben fosulin thanks for watching stay safe and see you again soon [Music] you

Channel: DW News

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Keywords: coronavirus vaccine, south africa, vaccine, vaccine access, vaccination, vaccine europe, coronavirus pandemic, covid south africa, covid mutation, coronavirus strain, coronavirus, coronavirus news, covid 19, vaccine research, thrombosis, vaccine risks, vaccine side effects

Id: j6Sn07fQeYM

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021