AstraZeneca Vaccine

[ASK-13]

If I am vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine which has not been approved by the U.S. F.D.A. Will it impact on my F.A.A. Class One Medical.

[Radgirl]

Given the current problems over vaccine hesitancy which will result in further delay to unlocking, a resumption of international travel and the ability of professional pilots to earn a living, shall we leave such banter to the pub? There is no compulsion to be vaccinated so if a registered doctor prescribes a vaccine not licensed in your regulator's country and you do not fly for 48 hours there is no risk from your regulator as it is not proscribed. Vaccines and drugs must be prescribed but many prescribed drugs are off license and so uncertified. All administered vaccines in the western world have an emergency use authorisation or equivalent. Drugs are licensed but not certified and certainly not approved although other bodies such as NICE may recommend. There is no such status as test and no legal ramifications for vaccines as all countries have accepted national and sole liability for complications.

I would have thought pilots would be promoting Covid vaccination to save their livelihoods.....

[SaulGoodman]

Whatever. I’m vaccinated and flying happily ever after! Can visit my old mother again without much risk. Enjoy your internet searches. Must be true cuz its ob facebook

[gingernut]

Radgirl is spot on.

[CFD]

Yep. Been on prune since 2005. I have read and agree with pretty much everything Radgirl has ever posted. She certainly has my attention regards anything medical.... i guess I would urge others if they dont like her posts to actually do their research.

[B2N2]

The US military used to have a policy:

Don’t ask don’t tell....

Its absolute idiocracy that the FAA has any say in a vaccine situation.
If its approved by an ICAO member State’s local health organization then its fine.
They have no need to know.
Only reason they have not “approved” its use is because its not available in the USA.
I would have taken the Russian or the Chinese vaccin just as happily.

[blind pew]

I took the Pfizer vaccine and had a mild neurological problem which stopped me flying for two days. I had around a month of headaches and had my second vaccine 2 weeks ago. The last few days my headaches have subsided.
BUT my wife had the AstraZeneca vaccine 4 weeks ago which was a mistake. Not only headaches and a marked deterioration wrt her Parkinson’s but purpura micro blisters appeared on both hands two weeks after the vaccination and still persist. Fortunately she is slowly improving but our situation is not helped by the Russian hack of the Irish health system along with **** poor organisation during normal times at best.
It is not possible to contact anyone of authority in the health service and our local GPs only administer the Pfizer vaccine hence they have very little experience of reactions to the AstraZeneca.

[Denti]

I had AZ, day of the jab nothing ever happened. Next day i hat side effects which persisted for roughly 4 days. Nothing too strong, my arm just felt like a horse had kicked it (and yes, i had that happen in my life as well), a splitting headache, tiredness and one night of fever. The headache was the side effect that lasted the longest, with nearly a week of headache. As i did not have to fly it really did not matter all that much. But for my second jab i will insist on the BioNTech/Pfizer one, which is backed by the advisement of the StIKo (german vaccine advisory board) for under 60 year olds.

But since i am based in EASAland there is no advise against either vaccine, the only advise is to not fly for 48 to 72 hours after the jab. Although my current company only allows for 24 hours of not flying.

[lederhosen]

I have had both shots of AZ and had a slight headache first jab and absolutely nothing second one. I think Pfizer probably is better against some of the variants. But as far as the side effects my experience is in line with Tim Spectors/ZOE app that AZ is generally milder second time around. The second jab seems to be pretty important and I would have it as soon as allowed, be it Pfizer or AZ.

[421dog]

Did an FAA medical recently on a foreign national training in this country who had the AZ vaccine in Europe. Read all the hysteria on the ALPA and NBAA websites and called CAMI before I issued. They said if he was through the 48 hr period they didn’t see any reason not to issue if there were no persistent symptoms, and just said that their post exposure quarantine rules/recommendations would still technically apply as if he weren’t vaccinated until a US EUA was granted. The guy went on to say (unofficially) that since transport Canada already allows it, the cat was sort of out of the bag anyway.
It doesn’t look like anyone’s gonna lose a ticket over this one...