Side effects of COVID-19 Vaccines. Are They Safe ?

  Hello, friends! Seeing the rising coronavirus cases in the country people are pinning their hopes on vaccines. But on one hand, we are seeing that some vaccines are causing blood clothing cases. We got to see some extremely deadly and dangerous side effects. On the other hand, we are seeing cases where people have been vaccinated but they still got infected by Covid-19. Obviously, after all this, you would wonder if you should take the vaccine. Come let's try to answer these questions. 

  Talking about that the direct side effects, the detrimental side effects of blood clottings that we are seeing is caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine by Oxford. Today, there are more than 100 countries using this vaccine. In India, there are two main vaccines in use. Covishield is the same AstraZeneca vaccine. Initially when this vaccine was being tested, no severe side effects were seen. But when its use began, the first cases of this dangerous side effect were seen in Norway. 4 health workers aged less than 50 got blood clotting after taking this vaccine. As well as low platelet count. Blood clotting can be very detrimental if it occurs in organs like your brain. It can block the blood flow which can eventually cause death. 2 out of the 4 health workers died because of a brain haemorrhage. And the others were hospitalized.

 After this, similar cases were seen in Denmark where one woman died. Also in Italy where another person died. Even in the UK, seven such deaths have been seen. After seeing all these cases, several countries have put a temporary ban on the use of this vaccine. Denmark was the first country to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. After that Iceland and Norway did the same. These countries have said that as a precautionary measure, they are stopping the use of the vaccine until there is no additional data on the severity of the side effects and the risk to the people. Today, several medical organisations have studied this vaccine in detail and we now have hard data available about the risk from it. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said that the risk of blood clotting from the use of this vaccine is 1 out of 100,000 cases. It means that if 1 lakh people take this vaccine, there may be one case where blood clotting may occur. This risk is a very rare risk. 

According to the British Health Regulator, this is even lower. They've said that the risk is as low as 1 out of 250,000 cases. You might think that this is still quite significant. Where there will be one case out of every 100,000 cases. But compare it to the other things. For any person to die in a car accident, the average risk is approximately 1 out of 500. To die from drowning is 1 out of 1,000. This 1/100,000 is as probable as you correctly guessing the last 5 digits of a random person's phone number.

 I want to give you an idea of what it means when we talk about a very small risk. How small it actually is. This is why, friends, these medical organizations have recommended that this vaccine should be continued to be used. Because the risk of dying from the coronavirus is much higher when compared to the risk of dying from being vaccinated. 

Even so, some countries do not want to take this risk. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Australia and Canada, these countries have stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under certain age groups. This age group is between 50 to 60 years of age. In Germany, people under the age of 60 will not get the AstraZeneca vaccine. You'll ask now, why did they set an age limit? The reason for this, friends, is that another thing found in the researches of these organisations is that the risk of blood clotting is more among the younger people as compared to the older people. I found it surprising as well, but this side effect is seen mostly in young people. 

Australia has recommended that people below the age of 50 should prefer taking other vaccines instead of AstraZeneca. Britain has said that people under the age of 30 should consider other vaccines. Coming to India, our government has said that there have been no cases of blood clotting in the country. I find this very unbelievable. All over the world, we are seeing the side effects of blood clotting from this vaccine but in India where so many vaccines have been given to people, there have been no cases. I don't know how much you can trust the data given by the government because the government often hides the data. But, in any case, experts and scientists say that this vaccine should be continued to be used especially in countries like India where the coronavirus cases are rising rapidly. Using this vaccine here would be beneficial for the country as compared to not using it fearing this small risk. This was about the side effects. In the other vaccines, Phizer, Moderna and Covaxin, no harmful side effects have been seen in them. If they haven't come up yet, chances are that they wouldn't be any in the future either. Because it has been several months since they were being used. But the second concern that people have is that even after getting vaccinated, there are cases of people still getting infected. How can that be? There are several reasons for this. The first is that vaccines don't work instantly. It takes some time for your body to build up immunity. Look at this graph. This graph shows that after taking the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines, after the first dose, the effectivity of the vaccine at certain intervals. In the first couple of weeks, the effectiveness of the Phizer vaccine is only 38% and that of AstraZeneca is 70%. But after 30 days, this effectiveness reaches 94% of the AstraZeneca vaccine and at 85% of Phizer. The second reason is that to get the full effect of the vaccine, you need to take both doses of the vaccine. You'd say that there have been cases where both the doses of the vaccine were taken and a long time had elapsed. But even after that people got infected. This is why, friends, the third reason is that even if you take both doses of the vaccine and wait for 30 days, you may still get infected with Covid-19. Because vaccines are not 100% effective. They are only 94% - 95% effective even after everything. But there is very good news. 

The good news is that after taking both the doses and waiting for 30 days the risk of hospitalization is almost 0% and the risk of death is almost 0%. This means that after taking the vaccine you might get Covid-19 But it would not be so severe that you'd need to be hospitalized or you might die. This wouldn't happen. In fact, some experts have also claimed that in all these vaccines AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, all have 100% effectivity in protecting you against death in case you get infected with Covid-19 after taking both doses. I hope that the concerns, fears and doubts that you had about their effectiveness and side effects of the vaccines have been cleared. Share this video with many people,you family members and friends if they too have doubts about the vaccines. Now one thing is certain that we need to get vaccinated. The second problem that arises is whether we'll get vaccines from the government. Vaccine shortage is being seen all over the country. One of the reasons for it is said to be the government's initial focus on exporting the vaccines. Sharing the vaccines with other countries. The government boasted about this as well. Claiming to have exported more vaccines than those administered to the citizens. Which isn't a good decision. 

You'd remember, in aeroplanes, when the oxygen mask drops down they tell you to wear your own mask first and then help others. Because your own safety is more important. Which the government did not do here. Experts have suggested several solutions to deal with the shortages of vaccines. The biggest solution would be to allow other vaccines in India. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available in other countries should be allowed to enter India. It will be a bit expensive but the people who can afford it can buy these vaccines by paying more. So that there would be vaccines for those who can't afford them. Quite a simple logic. I hope the government allows the other vaccines and is transparent about the data.  Thank you very much.