Decreased platelets, decreased white blood cells with increasingly frequent infections and cold. Destruction of red blood cells and anemia. Difficulty breathing and pale skin, aplastic and hemolytic anemia. Nose and skin bleeding and inability to heal. Kidney failure, severe liver failure. General numbness, fatigue and even in some cases aseptic meningitis with stiff neck, headache, nausea, vomiting, fever or disorientation. Who would want to be exposed to these symptoms and risks? Who would dare to administer a medicine that had any of these side effects, even if they were very rare? The answer is at least paradoxical considering that in 2019 more than 40 million boxes of the drug that is behind these possible adverse effects were sold in Spain.
ibuprofen
It is not a newly approved experimental drug and obviously not one. This list of rare or very rare adverse effects is detailed in the package insert of a box of ibuprofen 600mg coated. It is one of the best-selling drugs in the country, the safest and the most consumed almost daily by Spaniards to end headaches, muscle aches, fever or migraine, as long as a medical prescription is available. As with ibuprofen, any drug can trigger adverse effects to a greater or lesser extent unwanted in patients. These effects are constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, or ringing in the ears. Also, in its leaflet it can be read that “anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen may be associated with a small increased risk of heart attack or stroke, especially when used in high doses.”
From paracetamol, to acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), through drugs to control allergic reactions or, for example, antidepressants, anticoagulants to facilitate blood circulation in the event of a heart attack… any chemical formulation has its risks and before before going on the market, it has been correctly studied and valued without losing its security.
Paracetamol
Likewise, paracetamol has been associated with the development of neutropenia, agranulocytopenia, pancytopenia, and leukopenia. In this sense, nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, drowsiness, jaundice, hemolytic anemia, kidney and liver damage, pneumonitis, skin rashes, and methemoglobinemia have also been detected.
Omeoprazole
Omeoprazole, a medication that acts as a stomach protector, has side effects such as headache, diarrhea, stomach pain, nausea, or dizziness. These sensations are registered in more than 1% of those who take it.
The benefit of all this pharmacological arsenal far exceeds the risks that it entails in a very low percentage. In the case of the vaccine, the European Medicines Agency has detected 86 cases of thrombi related to its administration out of a total of 34 million vaccinated in Europe and the United Kingdom. Of these, 18 people have died.
One thromboembolism for every half million AstraZeneca vaccinated
These figures leave the statistics of these strange thromboembolisms in much less than 1 case per 10,000 vaccinated. In fact, the percentage of patients who have developed these vascular accidents related to a sudden drop in platelets and the appearance of thrombi after the first administration of the vaccine barely exceeds 0.025 of every 10,000 vaccinated. That is, one treatable thromboembolism for every half million vaccinated.
As for mortality, the figures with which the EMA works show very low ratios. 18 deaths out of a total of 34 million people vaccinated means 1 death for every 2 million people who have received the first dose of this vaccine.
In the case, for example, of ibruprofen, the leaflet details that the consumption of this drug could trigger aseptic meningitis, or a prolongation of bleeding time, photosensitivity to extreme sunlight or severe liver injury at a rate of one case per 10,000 patients.