The SMC’s mission is to improve the public understanding of science by ensuring that the news media has easy access to the very best experts and evidence when science hits the headlines.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that pregnant women should be offered the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as the rest of the population, based on their age and clinical risk group.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published a press release stating it finds a possible link between the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine and very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low blood platelets, but confirms that overall benefit-risk remains positive.
The latest weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting has been published by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and includes updated numbers of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST) and other thrombosis events with low blood platelets (thrombocytopenia).
There have been reports that Israel’s Health Ministry said on Sunday it is examining a small number of cases of myocarditis (heart inflammation) after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
A study published in Gut looks at antibody response to vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients treated with infliximab, an anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) biologic drug.
We now know that Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) has been reported to occur in about 5 in a million people after first dose of the AZ-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine. But a key question is currently unknown: what is the risk of CVT following a diagnosis of COVID-19? We might expect this to be increased because COVID-19 is associated with other clotting disorders like stroke and brain haemorrhage. New research from the University of Oxford has addressed this question using the TriNetX electronic health records network, recently used to show the neurological and psychiatric consequences of COVID-19 published at the SMC last week. The researchers, led by Professor Paul Harrison and Dr Maxime Taquet from the Department of Psychiatry, counted the number of CVT cases diagnosed in the two weeks after a diagnosis of COVID-19 or after the first dose of vaccine. Please note this data is a preprint, so it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and is not published in a journal.
Expert reaction to preprint (not a published paper) looking at incidence of rare cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) following COVID-19 infection compared to incidence after vaccination or influenza.
Expert reaction to Janssen COVID-19 vaccine situation in US and Europe (CDC and FDA recommending a pause in the US while they review six cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia); and Johnson & Johnson deciding to proactively delay the rollout of the vaccine in Europe)
Medicines regulatory bodies in the UK and Europe, the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) respectively, have released statements on the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and cases of rare blood clots and low blood platelets.
Valneva have published a press release reporting positive phase 1/2 data for its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate, VLA2001.
Several media reports mention comments made by the European Medicines Agency’s head of vaccine strategy, Marco Cavaleri, who told an Italian newspaper: “In my opinion we can now say it, it is clear that there is an association with the vaccine. However, we still do not know what causes this reaction.”
The latest weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting has been published by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), including updated numbers of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and other thrombosis events with low platelets.
Pfizer have published a press release stating that updated analysis of their Phase 3 study confirms high efficacy and no serious safety concerns up to 6 months following the second dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.
The UK Science Media Centre has its roots in the influential House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee third report on Science and Society, which sought to renew public trust in science after media frenzies on GM Crops and MMR. Established in 2002, it is an independent press office with a database of 3000 top quality scientists prepared to engage with journalists.
The Centre proactively makes the best scientists available to:
-Answer journalists questions on topical controversies
-Comment on breaking news and challenge misleading claims
- Assess new scientific findings, highlighting caveats and limitations
-Publicise new science in a measured and accurate way
The SMC’s philosophy is:
“The media will DO science better when scientists DO the media better.”
The UK Science Media Centre has its roots in the influential House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee third report on Science and Society, which sought to renew public trust in science after media frenzies on GM Crops and MMR. Established in 2002, it is an independent press office with a database of 3000 top quality scientists prepared to engage with journalists.
The Centre proactively makes the best scientists available to:
-Answer journalists questions on topical controversies
-Comment on breaking news and challenge misleading claims
- Assess new scientific findings, highlighting caveats and limitations
-Publicise new science in a measured and accurate way
The SMC’s philosophy is:
“The media will DO science better when scientists DO the media better.”
