Quote Originally Posted by lardy View Post
About 50 million Brits have had at least two doses. 163 is obviously a tiny percentage of that.

But it also seems like a small number of people to go blind in the UK over a year. What is the annual average number? I would have guessed it's higher than that. Could the vaccines have the unexpected side effect of preventing blindness?
As usual the Daily Expose headline (only 26 days to save it going bust this time) decontextualises the raw data. The MHRA site states:

This information does not represent an overview of the potential side effects associated with the vaccines. A list of the recognised adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines is provided in the information for healthcare professionals and the recipient information here. These can also be found on the Coronavirus Yellow Card reporting site. Conclusions on the safety and risks of the vaccines cannot be made on the data shown in the Print alone.

When viewing the vaccine analysis print you should remember that:

reporters are asked to submit Yellow Card reports even if they only have a suspicion that the medicine or vaccine may have caused the adverse reaction. The existence of an adverse reaction report in the print does not necessarily mean that the vaccine has caused the suspected reaction.

it may be difficult to tell the difference between something that has occurred naturally and a suspected adverse reaction. Sometimes these events can be part of the condition being treated rather than being caused by the vaccine.

many factors have to be considered when assessing whether the vaccine has caused a reported adverse reaction. When monitoring the safety of vaccines and medicines, MHRA staff carry out careful analysis of these factors.

For a medicine or vaccine to be considered safe, the expected benefits will be greater than the risk of having harmful reactions. It is important to note that most people take medicines and vaccines without having any serious side effects.


https://www.gov.uk/government/public...card-reporting

https://assets.publishing.service.go...ysis_print.pdf