Another seven cases of a rare blood clotting condition in Australia have been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration announced the new cases in its weekly COVID 19 vaccine safety briefing.
The authority said three cases were confirmed as a syndrome involving blood clots coupled with a low platelet count, and four were considered probable cases.
The three confirmed cases were a 75-year-old man from Victoria, a 59-year-old man from Queensland, and a 75-year-old man from Western Australia.
The TGA said two of the patients were treated and discharged from hospital, while a third man was in a stable condition.
The four probable cases are a man, 70, from NSW and three men 65, 70 and 81, from Victoria.
The condition, known technically as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, is extremely rare, according to the TGA, with the rates in Australia consistent with other countries.
Of the 1.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine given in Australia, there have been 18 confirmed blood clot cases.
Australia overnight secured 25 million doses of the alternative Moderna coronavirus vaccine from the US, with the surprise deal also paving the way for local production of mRNA vaccines.
The first 10 million doses of the double shot jab will be delivered by the end of this year, intended for people under 50.
Another 15 million booster shots are set to arrive next year, designed to guard against emerging COVID 19 strains.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was important to prepare for potential variants of the virus.
He said that they were well into the phase of dealing with what’s coming next because the pandemic was not going anywhere, and Labour’s health spokesperson Mark Butler wants the government to demonstrate why the deal has taken so long.
He said that the US, Canada, UK, European Union, Korea, Japan and Israel were already using the jab.
He told reporters in Canberra that tens and tens of millions of doses of this state of the art vaccine have already been delivered to the people in those countries, so why do Australians have to wait until the end of the year.
The Moderna vaccine and booster shot are still subject to approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration before they can be used in Australia.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government hadn’t shifted its position on a no-fault compensation scheme for Moderna.
Greg Hunt said the company agreed to the government’s terms.
Moderna is an mRNA, or messenger RNA vaccine, which teaches cells how to make a protein to trigger an immune response.
Australia doesn’t have the domestic ability to manufacture such a jab, and it seems, right now, more people in Australia are having their health affected by the vaccine than the disease itself.
They say it’s safe, but these vaccines had virtually no testing before they were released to the public, and we really have no idea what’s going into our body – hopefully, we won’t regret it in a few years when the true side effects manifest themselves.
And it’s incredulous as to the number of people willing to take part in an experiment, and these so-called jabs will remain in an experimental stage until 2023, and yet they want to make this an emergency use that’s still in clinical trials as mandatory as possible because they love playing Russian roulette with our lives.
Perhaps the benefits do exceed the risks but tell that to the families of the deceased, and now, who’s going to roll up their sleeves to have the shot?
