Risk of Blood Clots From Birth Control

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Every medication has a risk. You have to sort of waiy, i guess, the relative risks and benefits. Part of what's feeding into it is that there are people who have died from these clodding events. And so i think that's looming very large over this discussion as well. There's some hope that now that there's a wider awareness, people will be able to detect it earlier and potentially intervene early.

Reports of rare and unusual blood clots have resulted in several vaccine roll outs being paused while scientists scramble to work out if the vaccines are responsible and if so how.

The unusual combination of symptoms, including a low platelet count and clots focussed in the abdomen or brain, seems similar to a rare side effect from treatment with the drug blood thinning drug Heparin - however it is not clear how the vaccines could cause the syndrome.

In this episode of Coronapod we discuss the latest theories and ask how scientists are trying to get to the bottom of this important question. Medical regulators maintain that the benefits of these vaccines significantly outweigh the risks. But as uncertainty spreads, we ponder the wider implications of these reports, including the public perception of risk.

News: How could a COVID vaccine cause blood clots? Scientists race to investigate

Coronapod: How to define rare COVID vaccine side effects

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