The Story:
Neil Astles, a 59 year old English solicitor who received the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine on March 17, died almost three weeks later, on Easter Sunday, as a consequence of the blood clotting to which that vaccine has been linked.
Significance:
Astles is not the only fatality of blood clotting in these circumstances, although he has become the public face of the phenomenon. The number is small. Though in specific cases the etiologies can be debated, it is probably at or close to 19 for the United Kingdom. The fatalities, then, are about one quarter of the total number of post-AstraZeneca clotting cases reporter (79), and that in turn is very small compared to the number of doses given (20 million).
These numbers are from the UK’s Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
In Pill Form:
In an extraordinary and moving gesture, Astles’ sister, Dr. Alison Astles, spoke of how, though her brother was “extraordinarily unlucky,” the vaccination campaign should continue. “If you’ve had one dose, go ahead and have your second,” she said. “And if you haven’t had your dose yet make sure that you do. Because, overall, we will save more lives by people having the vaccine than not.”
