Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine: rare blood clot syndrome has high mortality rate

Researchers found that clots occurring after first dose of Oxford jab affected otherwise young and healthy people

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Although extremely rare, a blood clot syndrome after the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine carries a high risk of death and can occur in otherwise young and healthy people, UK researchers have found.

In those aged under 50, this blood clot syndrome occur in around one in 50,000 people who have received the vaccine, and that number falls to one in 100,000 in the over 50s, data suggests. But the risk of blood clots is much higher with Covid itself - research shows that more than a fifth of hospitalised patients with Covid have evidence of blood clots.