Until recently we have relied upon all our vaccines being offered without preference to the whole adult population. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has considered the balance of risks and benefits and made the following advice (see further detail below).
Older adults (including health and social care workers age 40 and over), care home residents and adults of any age with certain medical conditions are at high risk of the complications of COVID-19. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and JCVI advise that you should still receive any of the available COVID-19 vaccines 1. The benefits of vaccination in protecting you against the serious consequences of COVID-19 outweigh the risk of this rare condition. You should also complete your course with the same vaccine you had for the first dose.
In the current situation the JCVI has advised that it is preferable for people in this age group to have a
vaccine other than AZ. You are more at risk of the serious consequences of COVID-19 and will have the most benefit from being vaccinated if you are older, male, from certain minority ethnic backgrounds, in some occupations, or are obese.
If the situation changes and you are offered the AZ vaccination you may wish to go ahead after you have considered all the risks and benefits for you. If you decide not to have AZ you may have to wait for a few weeks for an alternative vaccine. This will leave you without the protection the vaccine offers and you can still pass on the virus. Please carefully consider the risk to both you and your family and friends of COVID-19 before making your decision. Please see the table under the heading What are the benefits and risks of the vaccination?
Currently JCVI has advised that it is preferable for people under 30 to have a vaccine other than AZ because the risk from COVID-19 infection is so low. If you are offered the AZ vaccination you may wish to go ahead after you have considered all the risks and benefits for you.
If you have already had a first dose of AZ vaccine without suffering this very rare side effect you should complete the course. This includes people aged 18 to 39 years. It is expected that the first dose of the vaccine will have given you some protection, particularly against severe disease. Having the second dose will give you higher and longer lasting protection and tends to cause less of the common side effects (including short lived headache)
1 If you have certain rare blood clotting disorders then you should discuss whether you can have the AZ vaccine with your specialist