Did Australia just ban the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because it’s dangerous?!
Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Australia Just Banned AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine!
People are claiming that Australia just banned the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because it’s dangerous, and caused many deaths and injuries.
Pelham : Australia has finally banned the AstraZeneca vaccine. This was originally the only vaccine available to Australians and was mandated. After a tsunami of excess deaths (15,000 this year) and millions of vaccine injuries… they finally pulled it from the market. The government…
Craig Kelly : AstraZeneca is GONE from Australia and it’s now time for the Court cases to begin
AstraZeneca HAS caused deaths & injuries
Health “experts” KNEW of the risks, but kept pushing the dangerous product
Let the class actions begin for wrongful deaths, criminal negligence & unsafe…
Steve Van Herreweghe : Australia bans AstraZeneca vaccines.
There was a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare but serious side effect called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). Question one is ‘How rare is it really?’ Question two is ‘Why is this not world news?’
Recommended : AstraZeneca Vaccine Blood Clot Risk : How Dangerous Is It?
Truth : Australia Did Not Ban AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine!
This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created by anti-vaccination activists, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Was Approved In December 2020
First, I think it is important to remember that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was first approved in the United Kingdom on 30 December 2020, with the first dose days later on 4 January 2021.
Australia provisionally approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on 15 February 2021, and its booster dose on 8 February 2022.
Now this is important – since its introduction in January 2021, AstraZeneca has not updated the vaccine to address the new COVID-19 variants that have cropped up in the 2+ years since then.
Fact #2 : TTS Side Effect Can Be Fatal, But Is Rare
After its mass introduction, it was discovered that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, later branded as VAXZEVRIA, can cause a rare side effect called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).
In some people, the VAXZEVRIA vaccine can trigger their body’s immune system to attack the platelets in their blood, causing them to clump together and form blood clots.
This creates a situation where the person not only develops blood clots, but also has low platelets which can lead to bleeding tendencies. This can be lethal if not treated quickly.
After 4.2 million doses were administered in Australia in the first 3 months or so, 64 people developed TTS, of which two died. As of March 2023, eight people are known to have died from TTS in Australia, after just under 14 million doses were administered.
So the risk of dying from TTS after getting the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is extremely low – about one in every 1.75 million doses.
Yes, there were some serious adverse reactions but it’s very important not to underestimate how big a difference it made in terms of lives saved back in 2021.
Particularly when Delta was the dominant strain, we couldn’t have got to where we did in terms of fighting off the virus by relying on the mRNA vaccines alone.
– Professor Catherine Bennett, Deakin University Chair in Epidemiology
Recommended : AstraZeneca Vaccine Blood Clots : What To Look For?
Fact #3 : Australia Did Not Ban AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine
Just to be clear – Australia did not ban the AstraZeneca VAXZEVRIA COVID-19 vaccine. On the Department of Health’s website, it merely states that:
From Monday 20 March 2023 Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) is no longer available.
Nowhere does it say that the AstraZeneca VAXZEVRIA vaccine has been banned because it was dangerous.
In fact, medical experts had long expected Australia to stop using VAXZEVRIA, because better vaccines were now available. It’s like phasing out an old car model, when a newer and better model becomes available.
Its removal was expected as it had been superseded by other vaccines. It was really only left available for this long for people who had earlier doses of AstraZeneca and wanted to complete their course with it.
It (AstraZeneca) was very effective in the early days of the vaccine rollout. But now with Novavax, there is a more traditional style vaccine that has been proven to be safe and effective as well as the two mRNA vaccines.
– Professor Catherine Bennett, Deakin University Chair in Epidemiology
Fact #4 : It Was AstraZeneca’s Decision To Stop Offering VAXZEVRIA In Australia
According to a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Aged Care, it was AstraZeneca that made the “commercial decision” to stop supplying the VAXZEVRIA vaccine in Australia:
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine remains provisionally approved by the TGA, however, the Sponsor made a commercial decision with respect to supply of AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia.
Fact #5 : Last AstraZeneca Vaccine Batches Expire In March 2023
According to TGA records, AstraZeneca stopped importing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine last year, with the last two batches (346753P1 and 347442P) being approved on 28 July 2022.
As the VAXZEVRIA vaccine has a 9-month shelf life, the last two batches would have expired around March 2023. Precisely the time when the Department of Health announced that it would no longer be available.
So it appears that Australia stopped offering the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because the last two batches have expired, and AstraZeneca did not bring in anymore.
Recommended : Why COVID-19 Vaccine Shelf Life Keeps Getting Extended!
Fact #6 : Australia Switched To Better COVID-19 Vaccines
Australia started using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine because it was more readily available early in the pandemic, and shifted to the more efficacious Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines when they became more readily available.
In fact, the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was only available by request in Australia from October 2021 onwards. That was not because it was dangerous, but because better vaccines – monovalent and then bivalent mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, became available.
The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care confirmed the phasing out of the vaccine was due to the availability of newer options. Its spokesperson clarified:
This was not a decision based on safety as some people have misrepresented on social media.
As expected, first generation vaccines have been superseded by newer vaccines targeting the strains of the virus now circulating.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
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