The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine ain't that bad

Lots of mixed messaging around for the AstraZeneca vaccine lately in Australia, but if you look overseas the AstraZeneca vaccine (or Vaxzevria as it’s called in Europe) isn’t that scary.

As of the 16th of June, 44.1m doses were administered in the UK. 389 people had a “suspected thrombo-embolic event”.

As of the 4th of April, the EU/EEA administered 17m doses and 222 people had a serious blood clot.

Note that these are all suspected - not every report has strong evidence that Vaxzevria caused the blood clot, just that a blood clot was observed in people who have recently received Vaxzevria.

61.1m doses, 611 blood clots possibly linked to Vaxzevria. Going by the UK and EU experience, you’ve got a 0.001% chance of getting a blood clot after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine here. You’d need to be one unlucky bastard to get a blood clot as a direct result of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia.