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So that raises the question as to what does the UK data show on this issue?
According to Dr Phil Bryan, vaccines safety lead at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA), "We are closely reviewing reports but given the large number of doses administered, and the frequency at which blood clots can occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause."

According to AstraZeneca, across the EU and United Kingdom there have been 15 events of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) - a blood clot in a vein - and 22 events of pulmonary embolism - a blood clot that has entered the lungs - reported among those vaccinated, some 17 million. AstraZeneca's chief medical officer Dr Ann Taylor said the number of cases of blood clots reported is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population.

More info here:

and here:
 
There have been a number of cases in Europe of cerebral ?? blood clots [stroke] developing after the vaccine was administered.
However, experts say the number of blood clots reported after the vaccine were no more than those typically reported within the general population.
About 17 million people in the EU and the UK have received a dose of the vaccine, with fewer than 40 cases of blood clots reported as of last week, AstraZeneca said.


Problem is there is no CONTROL/ baseline----what would normally be the incidence of cerebral blood clots in the older population groups in question if they remained unvaccinated and uninfected?
 
My only conclusion is that the people who head up the health ministries or agencies in those EU countries pausing the use of AZ based on no evidence at all are folks who should not be heading up those organisations. Completely clueless.

it's not as if public confidence in the AZ jab in France and Germany is high following Macron's observations, Merkel's refusal to say she would take AZ jab and German health ministry restricting AZ to under 65s.

meanwhile, Australia can't have the AZ jabs that Italy now are not using.

if it wasn't so tragic, ridiculous and stupid, it would be funny

result of all this is older EU citizens are at an increased, but avoidable risk of dying from CV19

completely bonkers.

I did a number of high value and complex M&A deals in the last century in each of Europe's major economies. At the time, I wondered whether we Brits were smarter and more pragmatic than them. Now I know we are.
 
Problem is there is no CONTROL/ baseline----what would normally be the incidence of cerebral blood clots in the older population groups in question if they remained unvaccinated and uninfected?
From the Telegraph:

The company estimates that 17 million AstraZeneca vaccines have been delivered in that time. That means that the risk of suffering from DVT or a PE after vaccination is 37 in 17 million, or roughly one in 460,000.

At the current prevalence rate, in a population of 17 million we might expect 314 cases to naturally show up in the week following a vaccine, so 37 starts to look very low.

And even if all 37 cases were linked to the vaccine – which is highly unlikely – the risk is still far lower than that of dying from coronavirus, which has an infection fatality rate of between 0.5 and one per cent, or between one in 200 and one in 100.
 
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It's more political shenanigans from EU countries which is disgraceful, how much lower will they stoop. I'm particularly surprised at the Irish republic joining in.

There is no evidence linking the vaccine with blood clots. A number of people in the vaccinated population would have got blood clots whether they were vaccinated or not. If anything the evidence is strongly against a link. This is what AstraZeneca had to say:

...across the EU and United Kingdom there had been 15 events of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) - a blood clot in a vein - and 22 events of pulmonary embolism - a blood clot that has entered the lungs - reported among those vaccinated.....these figures were "much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size and is similar across other licensed Covid-19 vaccines".
 
Problem is there is no CONTROL/ baseline----what would normally be the incidence of cerebral blood clots in the older population groups in question if they remained unvaccinated and uninfected?

In the UK we have a huge number of older members of the public who have already been vaccinated.

So that gives quite a large sample from which to gather data - and compare with the baseline of what might be expected with no Covid.

One of the problems we have seen through the pandemic is an inability of people, media, and politicians to handle scale vs proportion. So a report of a 300% increase in Covid infections in some part of the country might be reported by an increase of 12 to 48 - meanwhile in the next district there is no report because their 50000 went up to to 60000 and was only a 20% increase.

So if I was in the UK and we had reports of a reaction to the vaccine then I'd look for other reference points such as the EU or US. Then I would respond appropriately,

So far we have seen the EU governments react with a bit of knee jerk. They're looking for problems. When you have a shadow like Covid over your society then you need to look for solutions. I can't help feeling that they've been talking down the UK for so long that they find it very easy to let prejudice take charge over rationality. The AZ vaccine is receiving the same Not Invented Here prejudice that is applied to the Chinese and Russian vaccines.
 
Off topic?
Doing a fundraiser to fund daughter's studies. Fees 24.000 annually from 9.000!!! Plus accomodation.
Anyone?
 
The conduct of the EU throughout Brexit has been nauseatingly predictable. The fact that they’ve been completely outmanoeuvred by the Brits on Covid vaccinations must have them coughing blood. Their shenanigans can’t have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, surely. Truly pathetic behaviour.
 
The EU are miffed off because while they were pussy footing about with the vaccine roll out, we were getting on with it. They are trying there best to make us look bad so to try and keep face with there citizens. The same apply's to Brexit.
 
One of the problems we have seen through the pandemic is an inability of people, media, and politicians to handle scale vs proportion.

A quick fag-packet calculation:

If you vaccinate 100,000 people over the age of 50 today rather than tomorrow, you save 15 lives according to a French analysis. Germany has 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses that are now not being administered. Delay all of those by a week, and you’re up 1785 deaths.

What on earth do they think they're doing?
 
Scotland is apparently sitting on a million doses
 
A quick fag-packet calculation:

I find that - the reduction in workplace smoking aside - that the ability to do 'back of the envelope' or 'back of a fag packet' calculations has almost vanished over the last generation.
 
Scotland is apparently sitting on a million doses

Friend went to Glasgow's SECC for vaccination and said three were lots of staff standig around not doing much - very few general public there for vaccinations - though a lot of NHS staff in a separate queue.

It's all gone kind of quiet up here - I hear of lots of people below 60 being vaccinated in England but only over 60s vaccinated north of the border.

I wonder if the organisation north of the border isn't able to handle the second doses coming due at the same time as getting people in for their first doses.
 
What!! £24k/year? That’s crackers...
Commons Library Briefing, 15 February 2021 Summary In 2019/20 there were 538,600 overseas students studying at UK universities; 22% of the total student population. 143,000 were from the EU and 395,6000 from elsewhere New overseas entrants to UK universities fell from almost 240,000 in 2010/11 to just over 230,000 in 2015/16. Increases in the last four years have seen overseas entrants numbers reach a new high of 307,800 in 2019/20. The top sending countries for overseas students have changed over the last few years. China currently sends the most students to the UK, almost 102,000 in 2019/20; this number has risen by 90% since 2011/12. In contrast the number of students from some major ‘source’ countries have declined, numbers from Malaysia and Nigeria have fallen by 26% since 2011/12. There has been a general drop in entrants from the major EU countries since 2011/12; Ireland down by 43%, Cyprus 36%, Germany 29%, Greece 26% and France 18%. Italy and Spain were the exception with numbers up by almost half. In recent years, the UK has been the second most popular global destination for international students after the US. In 2017 the US took 26% of all higher education students who were studying overseas at universities in the OECD, the UK was in second place with 12%. But market share has been slipping and other English speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada are now seeing significant increases in overseas students - as are European countries which are increasingly offering courses in English. The decline in numbers from some countries has been attributed to a number of factors such as changes in student visa arrangements, the net migration target and Brexit. The Government has guaranteed to fund EU students until the end of 2020/21, but from 2021/22 EU students will no longer be treated as home students. The UK will not participate in the Erasmus+ programme after the end of the current cycle and will develop a new UK mobility programme the Turing Scheme. Universities UK has estimated that in 2014-15 international students contributed around £25.8 billion in gross output to the UK economy. International students also benefit the UK in other social, cultural and intellectual ways and they are an important contributor to the UK’s ‘soft power’ overseas. Any decline in student numbers is a concern and providers are particularly worried currently about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the number of international students coming to the UK in 2020/21 and beyond.. On 6 February 2021 the Government launched an updated International Education Strategy – which reaffirmed its aims to recruit 600,000 international higher education students annually and increase education exports to £35 billion a year by 2030. The Government has introduced a two year Graduate Route post study work visa and a three year visa for PhD graduates. This paper answers some frequently asked statistical and policy questions on international and EU students.
 
the ability to do 'back of the envelope' or 'back of a fag packet' calculations has almost vanished over the last generation.
Quick and dirty estimates are a critical tool that allows you to rapidly ascertain whether or not things are how you expect them to be (or not, as the case may be).

I too noticed that it was a capability totally lacking in the younger members of my team, which often resulted in them wasting time and resources on actions that a quick, coarse, analysis would have shown to be futile.

Ultimately, it’s a giveaway that people don’t have a sound grasp of what they’re doing.
 
Friend went to Glasgow's SECC for vaccination and said three were lots of staff standig around not doing much - very few general public there for vaccinations - though a lot of NHS staff in a separate queue.

It's all gone kind of quiet up here - I hear of lots of people below 60 being vaccinated in England but only over 60s vaccinated north of the border.

I wonder if the organisation north of the border isn't able to handle the second doses coming due at the same time as getting people in for their first doses.
... or held back to keep us in the ‘state of fear’ they have created then ramp up the inoculations miraculously just before the election

I am in the 55-60 bracket and heard nothing so far
 
Good article by Nick Triggle of the BBC on why suspending use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine by a number of EU countries is almost certainly the wrong thing to do:
 

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