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Look at the News #19 – COVID-19 Blood Clot Risks, European Football Super League, and Indian COVID-19 Double Mutation

Risk of Blood Clots caused by Coronavirus itself higher than Caused by Vaccines – Oxford Study

  • The Risk of developing a blood clot after COVID-19 infection is 8-times higher than that possibly caused by vaccines, says Oxford study  
  • 39 in a million COVID-19 patients developed cerebral venous thrombosis compared to 5 in a million who took the Astra-Zeneca vaccine  
  • The study included 500k COVID-19 patients and risk of blood clot was reported as 100 times higher than normal after infection  
  • Oxford study suggests around 30% of CVT reports after COVID-19 were in those under 30.  
  • Pfizer and Moderna cause blood clots in 4 in a million compared to Astra-Zeneca. The risk of CVT after taking these two vaccines is 10 times lower compared to COVID-19.  
  • Comparisons should be interpreted with caution as data is still being gathered.  

My Thoughts  

It is quite good in my opinion that a study has been conducted into this and came to the apparent conclusion that COVID-19 is a much greater risk of causing blood clots as a complication than the vaccines are, and therefore taking the vaccine is a much lesser risk than getting COVID-19, even for those who are aged under 30, so isn’t just guidance for the middle-aged or elderly, but for pretty much all age groups, taking the vaccine is much less risk of blood clotting than if you actually get COVID-19.  

For me this puts my anxiety somewhat at rest, although it is still slight, as it is with health anxiety. But it appears to be clear that taking the vaccines is much safer than actually catching the coronavirus. I myself remain waiting to be called up for the vaccine, but I assume it will happen at some point in the next few months, and this study makes me more confident in taking the vaccine.  

The European Super League  

  • The so-called Big Six British football teams are among 12 European football teams who agreed to join a new European Super League  
  • The Big Six include Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham.  
  • The other European football teams joining include AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, and Real Madrid. A further three clubs may yet join.  
  • These founding clubs agreed to establish a midweek league competition while continuing in respective national leagues  
  • The massive and unprecedented move has caused massive backlash from football fans, football associations, UEFA, FIFA, and politicians from all sides, including UK PM Boris Johnson.  
  • More specifically the UK Government is looking into ways to deter or prevent the move by The Big Six 
  • Backlash is over fears move is only over money, would destroy domestic games, and goes against integrity of the sport  
  • Others also are afraid the competition would be too exclusive for certain teams, with others being unable to qualify like in current leagues.  
  • FIFA had said it would not recognise the competition and those who play in such may be banned from the World Cup. UEFA had also made similar remarks for its games and leagues.  
  • Some believe the move may simply be a gamble to get leverage over UEFA and FIFA reforms  

My Thoughts 

I am not a big fan of football or really any sports for that matter but I did find this news to be interesting as it is something quite seismic and is the kind of debacle that interests me whether it is related to something I am interested in or not, as it is something that is upsetting a natural order of things, which has the chance of bringing about big change, whether people like it or not. So really it is something I am going to be keeping my eye on for that reason, although whatever does come of this won’t really give off any strong opinions from myself.  

But I do know many, many people out there have very strong opinions over this as they are very in to football and the such, and it has been quite interesting to observe all of these opinions, anger and widespread condemnation even from the political world. It is something I do not fully understand, but it seems that football culture is embedded within politics and there is a natural order that many want to preserve, as it is seen as better for the fans, and better for the country. People seem afraid that this new super league may disrupt or end the established and long culture of football within the countries involved.  

New Indian COVID-19 Double Mutation  

  • There is concern that this new variant may be even more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines and better at evading the immune system  
  • 182 cases of the variant have been found in the UK and is expected to rise, with fears it could cause a renewed outbreak by the end of June, becoming the new dominant variant  
  • The Government has since added India to the foreign travel Red List.  
  • This new variant has similar and/or the same mutations from various other mutations of COVID-19 such as the Californian variant, South Africa variant, and Brazil & Manaus variants.  
  • All the above variants are more infectious and more resistant to antibodies used by the vaccines.  
  • India has been seeing record breaking numbers of new daily infections of COVID-19 with hospitals getting overwhelmed and equipment/oxygen/medicines running low.  

My Thoughts  

This is really unfortunate news to hear about as we are around halfway through our pathway out of such a long lockdown now, and this new Indian variant of COVID-19 is now the new most major threat to this unlocking plan put in place by the government, and it could well be India now being put on the Red List is too little too late. As the article said the Indian variant in the UK is doubling in cases week on week, which is what the Kent variant did before it ended up causing a 2nd outbreak and became the dominant variant, and led to a new national lockdown.  

We may be ahead of the vaccine game, but it must be remembered that most have only had the 1st jab and so are not as protected as is needed to be, and even worse will be if the Indian variant is confirmed to be more resistant against current vaccines, then even those with two jabs may still not be as protected anyway. And you can see why this is causing a degree of concern, although I must say I do feel like the government has been a bit slow on this, and still even now seem a bit lethargic on reaction to it. Time will tell if the government was too slow to react to this new variant or not, up until now we had been doing quite well in limiting the spread of new variants, such as the Brazil and South Africa variants for example.  

If this new variant does end up knocking the unlocking plan off the rails, it could be a disaster for the government who has been enjoying positive approval in the polls due to successful handling of the vaccine distribution and the controlling of new variants from getting out of control up until now.  

I know many like myself are becoming incredibly fatigued from this lockdown, and with measures having been eased lately there has been a nice change of mood, and it has been good to get out a bit and have some fresh air. A reversal of that could well be very souring to the public mood. But I guess in a crisis like this, bumps in the road have to be expected, we have lived with COVID-19 for such a period now where people still forget how unprecedented it is, and how much of a crisis it truly still is, even with vaccines present.  


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