Study Shows Vaccines Carry Much Lower Risk of Blood Clots Than COVID-19

A new U.K. study suggests the risks of dangerous, rare blood clots in the brain are far higher in those infected by COVID-19 than in those who get either the AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, reports CBS News . Moreover, the number of people who develop clots after getting the vaccines made by the United States appears very similar to the number who get the condition after a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine. About four in every 1 million people who get the American-made vaccines experience cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), versus about five in every 1 million who receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. That equates to a 10-fold higher risk of CVT for people who catch the coronavirus than for those who get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and an eightfold greater risk for those receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, Pfizer stated that its own "comprehensive assessment of ongoing aggregate safety data . . . provided no evidence to conclude that arterial or venous thromboembolic events, with or without thrombocytopenia, are a risk associated with the use of our COVID-19 vaccine." Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the study's conclusions comparing the different types of vaccines are "confusing," and the manner of the analysis's execution made such comparisons realistically impossible.