Please note that a factcheck carried out by thejournal.ie after this article was published has claimed that The Liberal’s claim about “major concerns” about the AstraZeneca vaccine is misleading or that our original article was missing context. For the benefit of any doubt, this article has been edited to fully reflect that claims about a direct link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and strokes cannot be verified. For anyone who would like to read this ‘fact check’, you can do so here.
It’s been a very hard 15 months for the world, but thankfully it seems as though the pandemic is coming to an end.
However, some people on social media claim they have “major concerns” in relation to vaccines and continue to state that they will never receive any form of covid vaccination regardless of the consequences.
Governments around the world are introducing so-called “vaccine certs” or “vaccine passes” where people must produce evidence that they’ve been vaccinated in order to gain entry or service.
All that being said, there have been claims made that people who took the AstraZeneca vaccine might now be at risk of suffering a stroke, but there doesn’t seem to be any official data backing up these claims.
Reports are emerging of at least three people (two women in their 30s and a man in his 40s) suffering a stroke within 30 days of taking the jab. One of the events was fatal and the two others required hospital treatment.
However, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) has stated that there is no evidence whatsoever that there is a direct correlation between these three women suffering strokes and the fact that they were vaccinated prior to the events. It may well be a case that it’s just coincidental. A lengthy report on its findings can be read here.
The vaccine’s sometimes lethal side effects led to countries like Denmark and Norway banning the use of the AstraZeneca jab. Ireland however continues to administer it but has given due diligence to any side effect risks and has deemed it a viable option in the fight to combat covid.
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