Dressing windows on Oxford Street in London before shops reopen on April 12
Credit: Yui Mok/PA
SIR – In Britain, 79 people out of the 20 million given the AstraZeneca vaccine developed thrombosis (in some cases, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis) – a rate of four in a million.
By comparison, thrombosis can develop while taking the contraceptive pill at a rate of one to five women in 10,000 per year. Women who are pregnant or who have just given birth develop thromboses at a rate of one to two per 1,000.
Out of a population of more than 21 million men and women between the ages of 20 and 44, fewer than 1,000 died from Covid in the year to January 3 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is a mortality rate of one in 20,000.