If AZ was the only Vaccine available I highly doubt any Governments would be making a fuss over the extremely rare side effects... however, AZ has been highly politicised in EU AND there are (arguably better) alternatives so here we are. It's easy for a Politician to score brownie points with the masses when there's another Vaccine to fall back on.
Purely from a numbers perspective, you're more likely to suffer career ending complications from the Virus than you are from the Vaccine. People love to quote the survival rate of COVID, but always conveniently leave out the numbers of people suffering long term complications which would prevent them from holding a Class 1 Medical. Ironically, (or not) one of those long term effects from COVID is Blood clots.
Someone (possibly in another thread) mentioned they've lost their medical due to Vaccine complications... which if true, is a ****ty thing to have happen to an
individual. (Also, if true, I expect IFALPA and other Industry bodies will be issuing a warning shortly) But the exact same scenario could of played out if that person caught COVID and developed lung damage from it, or became a suffer of "Long COVID" which appears to similar to Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Finally:
True that, but, by and large, with existing vaccines & drugs they are known risks, assessed and identified over many years, if not decades. The Covid vaccines, all of them, carry the threat of unknown risks and that is the problem. Blood clotting was not considered a risk of the vaccine until it was. There was no risk of giving the AZ vaccine to <50's, until there was! And now, even if I wanted to, I can't get the AZ vaccine as I'm under 50, so the risk of blood clots is presumably higher than the risk of contracting Covid & dying from it.
How do you think these Risks are discovered and assessed over many years, or decades? Short answer is, not by leaving the phial sitting on a shelf. Phase 3 Trials have their limits... most phase 3 trials have a few thousand subjects. The rate of blood clots with AZ is around 1:200,000
This is, and always has been, the reality of medical testing. The
extremely rare side effects don't become apparent until mass adoption because you simply cannot get a large enough sample size from clinical trials. This might give cause for some to be hesitant, as an old friend of mine used to say (Retired Surgeon) "You never want to be to the first or the last to prescribe a certain drug", but the reality is, we don't know what we don't know. So yes, in effect, we're all guinea pigs (those who have been Vaccinated) but for a Drug that's successfully passed Phase 3 trials, you're more likely yo get hit by a bus stumbling back to your layover hotel at 2am than you are dying from the Vaccine. You're also far more likely to experience life long complications (or death) from the Virus than you are for the Vaccine.
Small comfort to those negatively impacted by the Vaccine I know... but there was never going to be a version of any Vaccine (or Medication) that didn't cause some form of side effects in someone when you're distributing it world wide.