GPs have warned that some patients in England are refusing the AstraZeneca vaccine or just not turning up for appointments after several European countries suspended the use of the jab over safety concerns.
Doctors are concerned that the recent high profile blood clot reports, which have driven much of western Europe to suspend their rollouts of the jabs, are fuelling an uptick in vaccine hesitancy within the United Kingdom, with appointment no show rates reaching up to fifty per cent at some vaccination sites.
GPs say that some patients have now begun to refuse the AstraZeneca vaccine, instead requesting a first dose of the Pfizer jab, and others have been overwhelmed with calls from people concerned about the reported blood clots.
It’s believed these trends will quickly disappear after studies led by the UK and European Union medicines regulators found the vaccine to be safe and effective. Both also emphasised there’s no indication of a link between the jab and the reported blood clots.
Germany, France, Spain and Italy, along with several other countries, suspended the use of the vaccine after 37 people who received the first dose, out of some 17 million recipients in Europe, later went onto experience a thromboembolic episode.
AstraZeneca said the incidence of such conditions is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is comparable to that of other licenced COVID 19 vaccines.
Scientists and experts have responded with concern to the decision to delay administration of the vaccine, insisting more lives are being put at risk from the COVID 19 than any associated risk with the jab.
These views are shared by numerous GPs, who have warned that confidence in the vaccine is starting to be eroded amongst some patients, and Simon Hodes, a doctor at Bridgewater Surgeries in Watford, told a news outlet that they’ve had several patients not turning up for their appointments or having loads of questions and concerns about it.
He continued that the vast preponderance of patients was happy to proceed with the vaccine once they’d reviewed the full details behind the headlines or after a consultation with a member of the vaccinating team.
Another GP in Harrow said concern surrounding the AstraZeneca jab had become a genuine problem and said that they’d seen this, big time and that they’d had twenty per cent either no show or decline, as people didn’t want the AstraZeneca jab, and loads of phone calls from people only wanting Pfizer and declining the AstraZeneca.
This is why the media need to act more responsibly because it doesn’t matter if they print a story several days later saying that AstraZeneca has been proven to be safe. Pretty much like when someone accuses someone of something – nobody cares if a story is printed later saying that they’ve been found innocent because people will only ever retain the allegations, and that’s what sticks in their minds.
The media love this pandemic, and it’s been blown way out of proportion in terms of the risks to the whole population, but to the media this is magnificent, and their reporting has created hysteria, worry and fear amongst millions of people.
They love to spread fear, whether it’s long COVID, another wave, people not playing by the rules or now the alleged side effects of the vaccine.
Over 20 million people have had the vaccine so far, but suddenly it’s only become a story in the last week or so.
Is it because we’re moving away from the lockdown, or because we might be beating the virus? Or is it because COVID will be something we just have to live with as we move into Spring and Summer?
The media should quit reporting the pandemic for a couple of months and let the United Kingdom get its head back on, but whatever way you look at it, the fallout from the lockdown will be extensive and there will be damage to mental health, damage to our economy but our society will be with us for years.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 