MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2021) The UK has registered about 2.5 times more cases of severe side effects and related deaths after vaccination with Pfizer vaccine than with AstraZeneca, according to the report "Restoring Confidence in the Workhorse Covid-19 Vaccines" published on Wednesday by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
"As of 5 April, following the 21.6 million doses of AstraZeneca given in the UK, there were reports of 321 cases of Covid-19 and 22 fatalities. In the same period, following the 15.4 million doses of Pfizer given in the UK, there were reports of 626 cases of Covid-19 and 40 fatalities," the report stated.
However, in absolute terms those figures are much smaller than that for people not vaccinated against COVID-19. In Israel, the country with the most detailed and publicly accessible information on the pandemic, the death rate from the virus was estimated at 0.7%, versus 0.004% from side effects of the vaccination, the report said.
According to the research, the risk of developing blood clots from AstraZeneca was also much smaller than from using common oral contraceptives � 1 in 250,000 and 1 in 2,000, respectively.
The data was obtained through UK's Yellow Card tool used by patients and doctors to report any suspected adverse effects from vaccination. Currently, the UK has the most inoculations with AstraZeneca, which makes its health database one of the largest "study group in the history of vaccination programmes," the report stressed.
The aim of the analysis was to "provide reassurance around the benefits of vaccines in general and, when it comes to the AstraZeneca vaccine, play a big role in rebuilding confidence in what will be the workhorse vaccine."
The report concluded that more detailed research is needed to provide better understanding of both positive and adverse effects of vaccination and to combat misinformation.
