AstraZeneca: UK Under-40s to be offered alternative says JCVI
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“Vaccines have been given to people when [it’s known] there are risks. We don’t know who those adverse reactions are going to appear in – it’s a lottery,” said widowed Gareth Eve. His late wife, Lisa Shaw – who was only 44 years old – experienced a blood clot following her first shot of the AstraZeneca jab. “Lisa had the jab on Thursday,” the father-of-one recalled. “The following Friday, she experienced headaches.”
Initially brushing it off, Lisa became concerned when the headache lasted all weekend.
It was severe enough for her to call in sick for work, saying that she didn’t feel well enough to come in on the Monday.
When paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine didn’t ease the pain, a blood test confirmed something wasn’t right.
The couple received a phone call, late into the night, saying that an ambulance would be on its way to collect Lisa.
“I had no idea what was going on,” said Gareth. “Paramedics suggested there was a problem with something in her blood.”
It was quarter to one in the morning, but Lisa “got up, got dressed, and sat in the ambulance”.
Gareth remembered back to the “heartbreaking” moment where Lisa didn’t get to say goodbye to her sister, not realising the severity of the situation.
Lisa’s sister had come round to look after their son, while Gareth went to the hospital with Lisa.
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Feeling choked up, Gareth said: “That’s the last time she saw her sister.”
Rushed off to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, the hospital team later discovered a bleed on the brain.
“She was in a lot of pain,” Gareth remembered. “She said, ‘I’m tired.’ I gave her a kiss, and then I never spoke to her again.”
Now Gareth is campaigning for people to have the choice of which vaccine they get.
“I’m not an anti-vaxxer,” he made clear, but “while we don’t know who it’s going to affect, while there is a cloud over AstraZeneca, put it on ice.”
“We have other vaccines,” he pleaded. “Give people alternative vaccines.”
The UK regulator MHRA released a statement in response to Gareth’s heartbreaking loss.
“We are deeply saddened to hear about the death of Ms Shaw, and our thoughts are with her family.
“Over 81 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 have now been administered in the UK, saving thousands of lives.
“No effective medicine or vaccine is without risk, and our advice remains that the benefits of AstraZeneca vaccination outweigh the risks in the majority of people.”
Becoming teary-eyed, Gareth wished for Lisa to be remembered as “so kind”.
“She’s my best friend, she’s a fantastic mummy, and daughter, and sister.
“I don’t want what’s happened to her to be brushed under the carpet, so this doesn’t happen to other people.”
BBC’s Medical Editor, Fergus Walsh, said: “It was heartbreaking listening to that.”
Walsh agrees that there needs to be a focus on side effects, risks and benefits of vaccines.
There is a known – very rare – side effect of the AstraZeneca jab called vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT).
This is a condition where blood clots form in combination with low platelet levels, which “doesn’t happen naturally”.
Thus, the MHRA says that it is “a strong likelihood” that the vaccine is causing VITT.
There have been “just under 400 cases of that”, said Walsh, “most of them after the first dose – and 71 deaths”.
Echoing the MHRA, Walsh stated that all medicines and vaccines have risks associated with them alongside benefits.
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