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| Vaccination against Covid-19 is safe, says independent study. |
If there is still any doubt that the Covid-19 vaccines
administered I Hong Kong is safe, the final report of the Expert Committee on
Clinical Events Assessment Following Immunisation (AEFIs) agaijnst COVID-19 should
lay it to rest.
The3 committee has found that of the 20.7 million doses of
COVID-19 vaccines administered to 6.9 million people in Hong Kong, not one
could be linked to the 120 deaths reported within 14 days after vaccnation.
The committee, set up under the Department of Health (DH) to
independently assess the potential causal link between Adverse Events Following
Immunisation (AEFIs) and COVID-19 vaccination in Hong Kong, revealed its
findings in a meeting convened today (Feb. 27).
The World Health Organization defines AEFI as any medical
occurrence that follows immunization and that does not necessarily have a
causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine.
The DH has put in place a pharmacovigilance system for
COVID-19 immunisation, and is partnering with the University of Hong Kong (HKU)
to conduct an active surveillance program for Adverse Events of Special
Interest (AESI) under the COVID-19 Vaccines Adverse Events Response and
Evaluation Programme (CARE Programme). The main purpose of the
pharmacovigilance system is to detect potential signals of possible side
effects of the vaccines.
The committee
reported that as of February 26, about 20.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines
had been administered in Hong Kong. Around 6.9 million people had received at
least one vaccine dose, it added.
In the same period, the DH received 8,102 reports of adverse
events (0.04 per cent of total vaccine doses administered), including 120 deaths
within 14 days after vaccination (0.0006 per cent of total doses).
In its report, the
Expert Committee found that of these 120 death cases, 117 death cases had no
causal relationship with vaccination, two cases had causal relationship with
vaccination that could not be established, and one case preliminarily
considered as not associated with vaccination.
The committee cited the case of an 83-year-old man who died
five days after receiving the first dose of CoronaVac vaccine in May 2022.
Preliminary autopsy revealed ischaemic heart disease. In the final autopsy
report, the cause of death appears to be acute myocarditis, an inflammation of
the heart tissue called myocardium which affects the heart's electrical system and
leads to irregular heart beats.
Investigations could not identify the cause of the
myocarditis. Research has not found any evidence that the vaccination could
cause acute myocarditis. Studies conducted by HKU under the CARE Program also
did not find any association between CoronaVac vaccination and myocarditis.
The Committee has
also reviewed available clinical data and information for conducting causality
assessment of other serious or unexpected AEFIs and AESIs. The results will be
included in the updated safety monitoring report (as at February 28) to be
published at the Government's designated website on March 3.
In addition, information related to AEFIs of COVID-19
vaccines and relevant statistics will also be released in the "Update on
monitoring COVID-19 vaccination" press release and the Government's website
regularly, it added.
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