A blog shared on social media said the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine kills COVID-19 people, claiming the UK government is trying to hide this effect. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. Drug regulators have suggested a possible link between rare blood clots and the jab, but this has not been confirmed. Continuous monitoring and regular reporting of possible side effects, as well as changes in advice on the administration of vaccines, also do not indicate that a “cover-up” has taken place.
The article, titled: “The AstraZeneca Jab IS Killing People & It’s Being Covered Up”, has been held on Facebook hundreds of times since it was published on March 31 (bit.ly/3cZr8fp, here). As evidence, the article mentions decisions in other countries such as Germany and Canada to restrict the use of the AstraZeneca jab, along with a comparison of the requests for freedom of information (FOI).
In response to a FOI request, seen here and quoted in the article bit.ly/3cZr8fp, about the number of deaths that would occur within 28 days after a COVID-19 vaccination, Public Health Scotland (PHS) said that 2,207 people up to and including 26 February. The PHS response added: ‘Note that these deaths are due to any cause. PHS is not currently aware of deaths in Scotland that are finally associated with vaccination. ”
The article further claims that Public Health England (PHE)’s’ received the same requests but did not respond yet. It concludes: “The AstraZeneca vaccine kills people. There is no doubt about it. The coverage has already begun. Share this information with anyone you are considering getting a hold of. ”
However, these factors do not support the article’s claim that the government is concealing deaths due to the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine. Reuters spoke to PHE by telephone, saying that FOIs of this nature received responses within the required timing. The agency added that such responses advised citizens to contact the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which stores information through the yellow card reporting scheme (yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/). Analysis of the data is regularly published online here.
According to the latest MHRA yellow card review report, updated on April 8 and available here, 302 reports are being received from the UK of suspected side reactions to the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in which the patient died shortly after vaccination . AstraZeneca vaccine and 12 where the vaccine brand is not specified. The report added that most deaths were in the elderly or people with underlying diseases, and evidence “does not suggest that the vaccine played a role in death”.
The article also does not mention that UK regulators have been investigating a possible link between the AstraZeneca jab and blood clots. The article, published March 31, is not aware of the MHRA announcement on March 18 that there were five cases of a rare cerebral blood clot under 11 million shots fired. The agency said at the time that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks (here).
On April 7, MHRA CEO June Raine said more than 20 million first doses had been administered by March 31. Among them were 79 reports of blood clots and 19 deaths. Despite the fact that no causal link is confirmed (here) categorically, this figure prompted the vaccine advisory committee for Britain to say that it would offer an alternative COVID-19 vaccine to those under 30 years of age. AstraZeneca also said it is working with UK and European regulators to name possible brain blood clots as an extremely rare potential side effect (here).
Wei Shen Lim, chair of Britain’s joint committee on vaccination and immunization, said younger people have much lower risks of hospitalization, and calculating the risk / benefit of the AstraZeneca shot means other vaccines are preferable (here).
Even with these findings, regulators such as the European Medicines Agency and the MHRA have said that the benefits outweigh the risks for the majority of recipients (here, here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that the government is concealing deaths due to the Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. UK regulators have continuously monitored the COVID-19 implementation, published their findings and responded to the results.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.