The BBC announced a documentary on the AstraZeneca vaccine; that’s the one jointly developed between Astra and Oxford University, and was initially the favorite in Britain and former colonies. According to the BBC, 2.5 million doses have been given worldwide. A promo for the new documentary describes the AstraZeneca jab as a “scientific triumph that went sour.” Citing “concerns over rare blood clots,” the BBC says the vaccine “is now barely used in the UK.”

While it looks like they are preparing to blame AstraZeneca’s demise on the FDA’s bias toward Pfizer and Moderna, this is still very telling. AstraZeneca is the first Covid vaccine to bite the dust over safety concerns.

If you look into this a bit more you’ll be surprised to find that, at the beginning of December, there were a few quiet stories like this one in the Daily Mail UK: [AstraZeneca uncovers ‘trigger’ of blood clots after its jab](https://tinyurl.com/bdyjabfu).

AstraZeneca described the mechanism by which its vaccine causes clots:

“They found that the shell of the vector vaccine — the weakened cold virus used to teach cells how to neutralise Covid — sometimes acts like a magnet and attracts platelets, a protein found in the blood. For reasons the scientists are still probing, the body then mistakes these platelets as a threat and produces antibodies to fight them. The combination of the platelets and the antibodies clumping together leads to the formation of dangerous blood clots.”

So Astra did the right, the only ethical thing they could do in light of this information. Once they became aware of the problem, they researched it and published their findings, despite how it would affect the injections commercially or whether the findings would cause “vaccine hesitancy.” And that information affected whether people wanted to accept the vaccine; in other words, folks were given informed consent/choice.

Of course, we’ve got nothing to worry about as we know that ALL vaccine makers adhere to the ethical standards set by AstraZeneca, right? It’s great that the other injections don’t cause blood clots as well huh?