Out of the UK comes another reported death from the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. In what’s considered a rare event by health officials, a coroner has concluded that 34-year-old Kim Lockwood died from the vaccine originally developed at University of Oxford.
Ms. Lockwood complained of a horrific headache some eight days after the jab back in March 2021. Experiencing a quickly deteriorating condition, she was admitted to Rotherham Hospital and just 17 hours later was pronounced dead.
The local Coroner, Nicola Mundy in South Yorkshire shared that Mrs. Lockwood was, unfortunately, “extremely unlucky.” The cause of death was recorded as Vaccine-induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT).
Deaths Record in Safety Monitoring System
In the UK vaccine safety events are reported in the “Yellow Card Scheme” recording system. As of March 17, 2022, this UK’s government itself reports over 162,719 people across the UK have died within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19 and that vaccination is the most effective means of reducing the risk of both death and severe illness. The UK has been conducting a mass immunization program since December 2020.
With nearly 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine alone administered, as of March 9, 2022, the Yellow Card reveals the following safety reports:
VaccineIncidentsPfizer-BioNTech167,234AstraZeneca-Oxford244,183Moderna36,337Unspecified1,570
By March 9th, 2022, the UK’s drug, and medicines regulator the MHRA received 438 Yellow Card report cases involving major thromboembolic events (blood clots) with concurrent thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts) in the UK post the jab with AstraZeneca’s vaccine.
The government reports the overall case fatality rate at 18% with 79 deaths, six of which happen to have occurred after the second dose.
Another 160 cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis are mentioned with 278 including other major thromboembolic events (average age 54) with concurrent thrombocytopenia.
The British government estimates that the estimated number of first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine disinterred here equals 24.9 million and the number of second doses at 24.2 million totaling $49.1 million doses. Thus, the government positions that any safety incidents are incredibly rare.
Overall, the reporting rate for safety events comes in at around 2 to 5 Yellow Cards per 1,000 doses administered. Although the UK government set up this scheme to track safety of vaccines, they declare that it “cannot be used to derive side-effect rates or compare the safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines as many factors can influence ADR reporting.” See the link for more details The BBC reported on a family tribute for Mrs. Lockwood, a mom of two boys, one 14 and one 7. Mrs. Lockwood donated her organs to medical research.