THE decision to offer the under-30s an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clotting concerns has had no impact on people’s intention of getting the jab, new research by a Scottish university suggests.
New UK guidance issued on April 7 recommended that people aged 18 to 29 should be offered the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said there was a possible link between the AstraZeneca jag and “extremely rare” blood clots.
Several European countries, including France, Germany and Italy, suspended use of the vaccine last month, although they later said they would resume its rollout.
University of Stirling researchers who have been collecting data for a wider project on fear and concerns related to Covid-19 examined whether public concern about the AstraZeneca jab led to “vaccine hesitancy”.
They carried out a survey after news of the European suspensions and they found no drop in the proportion of people who said they intended to get the vaccine.
Researchers carried out another survey on April 9 after guidance on vaccinating the under-30s changed and found only a slight change in people’s intentions. Tthey found that 85.7% of respondents said they intended to get the vaccine compared to 86.1% on March 17.
They also found little change in the 30 to 40 age group, which will continue to be offered the AstraZeneca jag.
Dr David Comerford, of Stirling’s Behavioural Science Centre, said: “I was surprised – I thought we would see a change in response following the UK regulator’s new guidance.
“Perhaps not from the under-30s, who would be offered different vaccines, but if you were 31-35, say, we would have expected hesitancy. This is not to say that people were not concerned by the news. Google Trends data shows increasing search activity for the terms ‘vaccine’ and ‘safe’ coinciding with the headlines.
“Also, on April 9 – the day of our data collection – the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Katherine Henderson, reported that all A&E departments witnessed an increase in the number of people reporting concerns after having the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“These concerns did not translate into mistrust of the vaccination programme in the UK, however.”
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