THE Royal Borough’s health lead has reassured residents that the Covid-19 vaccines are safe after the UK’s drug regulator found they meet ‘strict’ safety standards.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a safety report the vaccines are ‘extremely safe’, with mild expected side-effects.

In an assessment of nearly seven million doses given up to January 24 – mostly of the Pfizer jab – they found there were 22,820 suspected reactions, which means three in 1,000 people reported some adverse reaction.

Some of the mild ‘flu-like’ effects include headaches, sore arms, muscle aches, or chills, the MHRA said.

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The MHRA also said new data suggests severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are even rarer, with a reported rate of between one and two cases per 100,000 doses.

The Royal Borough’s lead member for adult social care, children services, health, and mental health, councillor Stuart Carroll (Con: Boyn Hill) stressed the report is ‘significantly reassuring’ the vaccines are safe and has urged residents to get their jab when it’s their turn.

He said the ‘rare’ and ‘short-lasting’ mild side-effects are not ‘concerning’ and outweigh contracting Covid-19.

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Cllr Carroll, who is an epidemiologist and on the UK’s vaccines task force, said: “This is a huge surveillance monitoring study, which was perfomed by the independent MHRA with no political interference and looking at nothing but the data and the science alone that these vaccines are safe.

“There are very, very few side effects and of those they are very, very mild. Nobody ever wants any form of side effects – but a mild headache or fatigue is infinitely preferable on a risk-benefit calculation to potentially getting coronavirus with all the potential very severe consequences that could entail.”   

He added: “I think it’s understandable people have questions, are curious, and have concerns – but all of those can be allayed not least by the fact that vaccines have been independently assessed on 10 million doses.

“It is vital to get vaccinated and to protect yourself and based on the emerging evidence, it may go further than that and you might be able to protect others as well.”