Friday, April 23, 2021

Justin Trudeau and wife Sophie receive AstraZeneca vaccine in wake of damning newspaper story

by Charlie Smith on April 23rd, 2021 
GEORGIA STRAIGHT



Media captured the moment when the Trudeaus received their first COVID-19 vaccinations.CPAC

The prime minister of Canada has taken what one health writer derided last month as the Edsel of pandemic age.

The decision of Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine today came as the vaccine's Baltimore manufacturer is under fire.

The National Post reported that more than half of Canada's AstraZeneca vaccine supply came from a plant that had quality-control problems, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

That prompted University of Ottawa health and legal specialist Amir Attaran to declare that the doses must be recalled and not used.

In March, the Globe and Mail's Andre Picard described the AstraZeneca as a "good vaccine".

However, Picard also compared its rollout and the company's missteps to that of the infamous Ford car that was sold from 1958 to 1960.

In B.C., Premier John Horgan took the AstraZeneca vaccine when it was only available in pharmacies to those between 55 and 65 years old.

At that time, there were vaccines sitting in pharmacies unused, but demand has spiked sharply since the age limit was lowered to 40 in B.C.

Here's what Trudeau said last night over Twitter.

He followed it up this morning with another call for people to get vaccinated.


“If you’re eligible for your vaccine like we are, make sure you get your dose as soon as possible,” Trudeau told reporters today.

You can see him receiving his shot in the video below.


The Trudeau's appear at 6:15 of this video.

Meanwhile, Ontario has reported first case of an AstraZeneca vaccine–based blood clot.

Also known as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, it occurred in an Ontario man in his 60s who received the AstraZeneca/COVIDSHIELD vaccine, which was manufactured in India.

“The patient has received treatment and is recovering at home," Ontario's chief medical officer of health, David Williams, said. "Additional details will not be publicly released to protect the patient’s privacy.”

It's the fourth such case in Canada from more than 1.1 million doses that have been given.

The chance of a blood clot from COVID-19 vastly exceeds the change of a blood clot from the AtraZeneca vaccine, as the tweet below indicates.




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