Problems with Covid & Vaccines

There have been a lot of mentions of the risks of doses of the various vaccines since they came out.

The risks for catching and a serious illness coming from covid change with variant, immunisation levels, age, immunity levels, exposure, occupation, sex, race, precautions such as masks and hygiene, blood group, socialisation, and probably a lot of other characteristics. Variant, proximity and time being some of the most important.

But generally the risks from say alpha, beta or delta variants for unvaccinated was about on average 1 in 70 mortality and 1 in 10 long covid. With vaccination it changed to about 1 in 200 mortality and 1 in 400 long covid.

With omicron you had for unvaccinated was about on average 1 in 150 mortality and 1 in 30 long covid. With full vaccination it changed to about 1 in 400 mortality and 1 in 500 long covid.

It’s hard to define causes, but I would estimate that maybe a absolute maximum of 6,000 people may have died from the vaccine in the UK. Much lower if you count only those who died within 21 days of a vaccination. With proper caution this could probably have been 3,000. This is of a population of 40 million that have been vaccinated, so about a 0.015% risk, about 1 in 7,000, or 0.008%, 1 in 14,000 with caution. The shots of vaccine were 122 million, so in relation to actual shots it would be about a 1 in 20,000 risk. The problem is if the vaccine was not the cause, and they actually died from something else that caused it, having the vaccine shot just being a coincidence of timing. Normally 1,600 people die a day in the UK at this time of year.

In comparison, the american CDC has reported 131 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis from 130 million shots that is 1 in 1,000,000 cases. 436 reports of venous thrombosis with concurrent thrombocytopenia of which 18% died. 122 million doses, 1 in 280,000 so with other odd occurrences the apparent cumulative risk seems to be about 1 in 300,000 from vaccines in the US.

There is now the added contagion level of what is known as Paxlovid rebound and general reoccurrence at 8-10 days, which seems to have been found with covid infections as well. This is where somebody may after 8-10 days suddenly have an increase in their viral counts, possibly with the chance that they may infect at that time when thought free of the disease.

But the small risks with vaccines can be reduced with knowledge of symptoms of conditions that pose a risk:

Thrombocytopenia is a condition in which you have a low blood platelet count.

People with thrombocytopenia: can bruise easily have nose bleeds or bleeding gums have pinpoint bleeding in the skin that looks like a rash or petechiae, have cuts that keep bleeding, or feel perpetually tired In rare cases internal bleeding may occur. Usually, thrombocytopenia occurs such as a result of a bone marrow disorder such as leukemia or an immune system problem. It can be caused by certain medicines, affecting both children and adults. For such a related venous thrombosis look for a headache at back of the head that won’t go away.

Myocarditis or pericarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle or the inflammation of the lining outside the heart, both having similar symptoms.

Myocarditis or pericarditis may result in non-common chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, and heart arrhythmias, where you get an unusual heart beat.

If you have some of these symptoms its best to visit a doctor immediately as it could be thrombocytopenia, venous thrombosis, myocarditis or pericarditis, blood tests usually indicating which.