Matters of communication: Handelsblatting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

On March 11, the EMA tried to stem any prospect of panic. "There is currently no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions, which are not listed as side effects with this vaccine." It added that the benefits of the vaccine "continue to outweigh its risks and the vaccine can continue to be administered while investigation of cases of thromboembolic events is ongoing."

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) called the measure by Iceland, Denmark and Norway merely "precautionary". "It has not been confirmed that the report of a blood clot was caused by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine. People should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so."

Speaking for the MHRA, Dr Phil Bryan stated that, "Blood clots can occur naturally and are not uncommon. More than 11 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca have now been administrated across the UK." The reported blood clot cases were "not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population."

The medical wisdom on this remains consistent: certain adverse events will happen; comorbidities can play a distracting role. To quote Dr Peter English, till recently Chair of the BMA Public Health Medicine Committee, the introduction of a new vaccine with "reports of adverse events such as this" was far from "unusual". On the contrary, it showed "that adverse reaction monitoring systems are working" rather than indicating a causal link between the reaction and the vaccination.

A meaningful strategy against pandemic suppression is not merely whether successful vaccines can be made, let alone successfully delivered, but whether the communications work. Unfortunately for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the patchy reputations of pharmaceutical giants, and the specific way reports on the efficacy of the product have gotten traction, have damaged it. The risks of being Handelsblatted are never far away.