It is known that British pharma giant AstraZeneca has admitted that its Covid vaccine can lead to blood clots and low platelet count. It added that the adverse events are rare.
However, the operative term, 'rare', has been ignored by common people. Social media is full of memes, posts and scaremongering over the vaccine. "I should have taken Covaxin instead of Covishield," is a refrain that has been heard from many.
Experts say that Covishield is safer than not taking a vaccine at all. "The clotting side effect of the Covishield vaccine is already known and is extremely rare: Incidence of is about 4 per million. In comparison, risk of clotting events with severe Covid infection ranges from 5% to 25% as per multiple studies, which is exponentially larger than due to the vaccine," wrote The Liver Doc, one of the prominent hepatologists in the country.
Dr Shivam says that the incident rate of the side effects is too low. "You have a higher chance of dying in a road accident while walking home than getting TTP from the vaccine," he adds. "Do you understand the meaning of 'rare side effects'? Do you know what are the rare side effects of the Polio, Measles and Rubella vaccines that are given to kids? Don't spread panic," wrote Black Pill, a Twitter user.
