We're still in a very early part of this developing story, and it's hard to predict yet how things will turn out. Here are some of the main points: - The recen

We're still in a very early part of this developing story, and it's hard to predict yet how things will turn out. Here are some of the main points: - The recent development that might have spurred this sciencemag article is a proposed mechanism for the AZ vaccine to be causing blood clotting in some individuals. This was previously covered a couple of weeks ago. [1] - The number of people who have suffered serious effects as a result of the AZ vaccine are still much lower than the number of people who could have suffered serious Covid symptoms in the same population. [1] - However, the demographics don't line up perfectly. The blood clotting seems to be a greater risk for younger individuals, whereas serious Covid symptoms are more of a problem for older individuals, on average. - It's entirely reasonable for people who are at low risk of Covid symptoms to have concerns at this point about taking the AZ vaccine. - However, governments are facing the broader issue of stopping the pandemic as quickly as possible and reducing vaccine hesitancy, especially with the vast amounts of misinformation that have been washing through social media. For that reason, while research continues on this potential clotting issue, most governments have resumed AZ vaccinations [2]. - This is arguably not the most intersting AstraZeneca-related thing happening right now. They have also botched several other aspects of their vaccine development and roll-out [3] [4]. - Clotting issues have not been observed in the mRNA vaccines. Those vaccines use a different mechanism to trigger an immune response, and so far all of the indicators for these vaccines have been overwhelmingly positive. Almost one-third of Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine so far and there are good reasons to be optimistic that the pandemic will soon start coming to an end for some of us. - Vaccinating the rest of the world is still a large and very important problem. If we don't do that, then vaccine-resistant variants may develop in other countries. From that standpoint, the AZ vaccine, despite its flaws, is still better than no vaccine at all. [1]: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/03/21/979781065/european-scientists-zero-in-on-astrazeneca-blood-clot-link https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0... [2] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/european-countries-resume-use-astrazenecas-covid-19-vaccine-hoping-pause-has-not-dented https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/european-countries-r... [3]: https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1374349620533411840?lang=en https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1374349620533411840?lang=e... [4]: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BR00Q https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BR00Q