finally, all three vaccines are 100 per cent effective in preventing serious illness and death. that’s what counts.
then there’s the blood clot thing.
the risk with az is one in 250,000, dr. supriya sharma, health canada’s chief medical advisor, told the media after health canada reviewed the vaccine’s safety two weeks ago. but if you haven’t been vaccinated, and you end up in hospital with covid-19, your risk of a blood clot is one in five. that’s pretty convincing.
the risk of a blood clot from birth control pills is a lot higher, one in 1,600, sharma said. i took birth control for 15 years. the risk flitted through my mind maybe once. i was more concerned with not getting pregnant in university or during my freewheeling before-house-and-kids 20s.
if you’re pregnant, the risk is one in 300, said sharma. i had two pregnancies. one was twins. if i’d worried about all the risks in a twin pregnancy, i would have gone crazy.
and there are all the flip-flops. people over age 65 shouldn’t get the az vaccine. now they should. people under 55 shouldn’t. now, people over 40 can. the data and circumstances evolve, and the recommendations evolve with them. that’s the way it should be.
so why was i one of the 54 per cent of canadians, according to an angus reid poll, who was uncomfortable with the az vaccine?