Taking the Astrazeneca ‘pause’ in stride

When it comes to risk, we sometimes focus on the wrong thing.

I’m thinking about the risk of flying versus driving to the airport. The chances of getting hurt or killed are higher in the car, yet people tend to focus their fear on flying, not driving.

The whole Astrazeneca vaccination rollercoaster is another example of this. There have been so many twists and turns with the story of this vaccine, it’s hard to keep up with it.

With each new batch of numbers comes a new warning or limitation on who should or should not receive it.

Until this week. Now no one will receive it as a first shot in Nova Scotia.

This province has taken the decision to “pause” the Astrazeneca rollout, following Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and other provinces which have also stopped offering it.

The problem is a very rare brain blood clot linked to the vaccine. There have been no cases of vaccineinduced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) in this province but other provinces have reported incidents.

The odds are getting this blood clot after the vaccine are still very low. There have been 12 cases of VITT in Canada out of more than two million doses of Astrazeneca. Three women have died.

But the abundance of caution reflex has taken hold.

As a full disclosure, I was in the Astrazeneca cohort in Nova Scotia. Three weeks ago, I did my duty to take the first vaccine offered to me.

So what am I going to do now? Well, I’m going to keep distancing, staying put and getting tested.

And what am I not going to do? Start wringing my hands, wasting my time regretting it or blaming people.

No vaccine buyer’s remorse here. What’s done is done. And I daresay I’d do it again, if I were offered a second dose of Astrazeneca. If they have doses left over right now, I’ll take one.

According to the numbers right now, the risk of these blood clots after the second dose are one in a million.

By my calculation, the risks of contracting COVID19 still outweigh the risk of Astrazeneca. And the risk of a Covid-related blood clot would also be greater.

I do understand that by receiving the Astrazeneca jab when I did, the science at the time indicated it was safe to do so. I was doing my bit to form the human chain against COVID-19.

(Although not scientifically correct, maybe we should call it COVID-21, as it feels like we are dealing with a different virus with the variants which are more contagious than the firstedition COVID.)

The other way of looking at it is that by taking the Astrazeneca, I might have prevented an outbreak of COVID in the community. That would also combat the risk of putting more pressure on the health-care system and ICU units.

It was also my small way of getting us out of this thing and back to normal.

That said, I’m not a virologist, vaccine specialist or an epidemiologist.

I do understand that the public health officials are making the decisions in real time and crunching numbers as they come in. I also understand that scientists are trying to be transparent when they inform us of the risks, however remote.

But when the focus is on rare side effects of the vaccine rather than the more significant risks of contracting COVID and spreading it to the community, we may not focusing on the right thing.

The decision to hit pause becomes easier when we have an abundance of other vaccines in the pipeline. Canada and Nova Scotia will be receiving increased supplies of the Pfizer and Moderna MRNA vaccines.

Research is now being done to see if it is safe and effective to receive one of those MRNA vaccines after the Astrazeneca.

The silver lining might be that it is even better than two Astrazeneca.

BRUCE MACKINNON