Page 26 - Vaccines

Vaccines and Catholic morality

which did not proclaim that a direct link had been found,
but which seemed to suggest that such a link was
plausible in some cases. A similar enquiry in Britain,
where a major vaccination campaign with Astra-Zeneca
has been credited with a dramatic reduction in the rate
of deaths in the country from coronavirus from January
to April, 2021, appears to see a possible reaction of
thrombosis in 20 out of 79 cases. This seems to be a factor
in the advice in Italy that those at greater risk, those over
60, should accept the second dose of the Astra-Zeneca
vaccine, where they have had the first; greater protection
is afforded where the booster is taken and the second
dose would not be recommended were it not so; even the
first dose seems to reduce the death rate and the adverse
reaction of thrombosis seems to occur within 14 days of
the first dose. There have been reports of some adverse
reactions to other vaccines also, such that there appear
to be investigations in Germany in April about the
inflammation of heart muscles in some subjects who have
received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; again it concerns
a minority of those who have been vaccinated.
Whether the vaccine needs to be repeated and at what
interval is not always clear. There have been real problems
of distribution of this vaccine, of Pfizer-BioNTech,
Moderna and Astra-Zeneca vaccines in Europe, causing
worries also about whether a second dose (booster) can be
administered within the proper interval, and this quite
apart from questions about what level and what length of
protection the various vaccines may offer. More generally,
the pressure to find an effective vaccine in the midst of a
raging pandemic has led these and other pharmaceutical
firms, also in Russia and in China, to press ahead with
clinical trials at a speed which may seem to involve undue
haste. Merck has abandoned the attempt to produce a

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