Britons overwhelmingly trust the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus jab despite concerns about blood clots, according to a Times poll that shows the vaccine programme is still on track.
Healthy under-30s are being advised to have alternative vaccines after regulators said there was a “strong possibility” that the Oxford vaccine had caused fatal clots.
However, ministers and government scientists have begun a campaign to retain public confidence, highlighting that the type of clot involved is “vanishingly rare”.
The poll by YouGov, carried out after the change in the official guidance on Wednesday, found 75 per cent of people considered the Oxford vaccine safe — down only two percentage points since March. The level of public confidence was similar to that for the PfizerBioNTech vaccine, which was considered safe by 78 per cent of those polled.
The survey also found younger people had retained confidence in the Oxford jab, although at lower levels than those in older age groups. Among those aged 18-24 almost two thirds said the vaccine was safe, three points up on March, while 68 per cent of 25 to 49-year-olds said the same.
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Across all age groups, 13 per cent considered the Oxford vaccine to be unsafe, and 12 per cent did not know.
The continued support emerged as official figures from Public Health England revealed yesterday that more than 10,000 lives were saved by the first three months of the vaccination programme.
In other developments:
• There were 3,030 new cases reported, with the seven-day total down 37 per cent, and 53 deaths, with the weekly total down 33 per cent.
• A study showed only one infection in a thousand occurs outside, and another has put the risk of infection from surfaces at one in 10,000.
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• The number of people reporting Covid-19 symptoms has fallen sharply and is at the lowest level since last July, according to app data.
• People who have been given the Moderna vaccine still have antibodies capable of neutralising the virus six months after their second dose.
• The Royal College of Psychiatrists said that the country was in the grip of a mental health crisis, with referrals rising sharply during the pandemic.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, sought to reassure people about the Oxford vaccine yesterday by comparing the risk of developing a blood clot to taking a long-haul flight.
“The safety system that we have around this vaccine is so sensitive that it can pick up events that are four in a million — I’m told this is about the equivalent risk of taking a long-haul flight,” he told BBC Breakfast.
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“The UK has the highest enthusiasm for getting the jab of anywhere that’s been measured and tested around the world . . . it shows that people are willing to do this thing because it’s the right thing for them, and the right thing for their loved ones, and ultimately the right thing for the country.”
Regulators concluded on Wednesday that the Oxford vaccine was a “plausible” cause in 79 cases of unusual blood clots, including 19 deaths, among the 20 million people who have received it so far.
The government emphasised that regulators in Britain and Europe had not ordered a halt to use of the vaccine in any age group. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the European Medicines Agency both concluded yesterday that the benefit outweighed any risk.
Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy head of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said: “People should not lose confidence . . . it’s a great vaccine.”
Anthony Wells, the director of political research at YouGov, said: “While it’s possible that the news hasn’t sunk in yet, the initial data doesn’t suggest that the news has had any significant impact on trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
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The government is now considering a renewed push to convince young people to have vaccines. Hancock urged people to “do their bit” for their friends and family by having the jab.
