Public demand for the AstraZeneca vaccine falls in Britain

April 29, 2021: -Public preference for the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has gone down since reports came, which should include some cases of unusual blood clotting events.

A study of nearly 5,000 adults in April in the U.K. has found that the public’s preference for the AstraZeneca Coronavirus vaccine has declined after March. The belief has increased that it causes blood clots.

The British academic study found 17% of the public now say they’d prefer AstraZeneca vaccine if they had a choice of any down from 24% by March-end.

And 23% of people now believe the AstraZeneca vaccine can cause blood clots, up from 13% in March.

The latest hurdles faced by the AstraZeneca vaccine were fewer reports of unusual blood clotting events, some of which were fatal, that emerged in post-vaccinated people in Europe in February, which led several countries to suspend the use of the vaccine.

The U.K. and EU drug regulators investigated the reports. They said while there was a possible link between the vaccine and a small number of blood clotting incidents, the vaccine’s benefits greatly outweighed the risks.

The British-Swedish vaccine maker, U.K. government, and experts largely defended the vaccine, saying that it had protected millions of people by reducing the number of Covid cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

The U.K. is fortunate in that it has traditionally had a high level of public support for vaccinations. The survey on vaccine preference found that despite the growing belief that the AstraZeneca vaccine is linked to blood clots, it has not dented overall levels of confidence in vaccines in general, with 81% now saying vaccines are safe, compared with 73% who said the same toward the end of 2020.