‘Deaths or side-effects not caused by Sinovac jabs’

An expert panel has unanimously taken the view that the death of a 55-year-old woman was not linked to the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine she’d received just days before.

A co-convenor of the panel, Professor Ivan Hung, told a press conference on Monday that a preliminary autopsy report suggested the woman, who had high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol, had symptoms of a stroke, including tears in the aorta.

She died on March 6, four days after receiving the jab.

“We know that people who have poorly controlled coronary artery disease or ischemic heart disease, they would have high risk, of course. In fact whether they are vaccinated or not, they would still be at risk of having a sudden death,” Hung said.

He said the death rate for people who have been vaccinated are comparable to that for the general population, noting that people die of chronic illnesses, including coronary heart disease, every day.

Hung said the panel will have to study a detailed autopsy report to conclude its findings.

The panel looking into possible side-effects from Covid-19 vaccination also ruled that the jabs were not the cause of two people becoming seriously ill shortly after they were inoculated.

One of them is an 80-year-old man who suffered from chronic illnesses, including diabetes, and the other is a 72-year-old woman who may have taken ill because she failed to take insulin injections regularly, the panel said.

The experts, meanwhile, said they are waiting for a detailed autopsy report of a 71-year-old man who died in the early hours on Monday morning after getting the Sinovac vaccine at a private clinic last Wednesday, so they could determine if the jab was related to the death.

The panel concluded that there’s insufficient evidence to suggest any of these cases are serious adverse effects of the Sinovac vaccine, but added it will continue to monitor the vaccination programme closely.

Three deaths have now been linked to the Sinovac jabs since the start of the citywide vaccination scheme late last month, prompting experts to call on the government to release more data about the vaccine to assure people about its safety.