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17 Mar 2021
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Erdogan bodyguard commits suicide, cites insults and threats in note: Report

March 17, 2021

A security officer working at the presidential protection unit of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has committed suicide, leaving a note saying he had faced insults and threats from work, according to local Turkish media reports.The bodyguard who worked as part of Erdogan’s protection team was identified as Mehmet Ali Bulut by the Cumhuriyet newspaper. His death was ruled a suicide after his colleagues found a note when they discovered his body at his apartment after he had failed to show up at work and his phone was turned off.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“I wish you had treated your employees well and asked them how they are. It must be what you do best to insult your personnel, threaten them, fire them, humiliate them and make them out to be liars,” Bulut was reported to have written in his suicide note, according to Ahval newspaper which translated the letter.“Every man has his pride, and I couldn’t stomach those words,” Bulut said.Bulut is now the third officer to commit suicide this year, after two other officers identified as Halil Akkaya and Ethem Dağdeviren killed themselves earlier this year.“These children, at the prime of their lives, want to become police officers, and then they commit suicide. What pushes them to give up on their own lives?” Ahval quoted Murat Bakan, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People’s Party who submitted an inquiry to parliament following the suicides.Read more:Hundreds of children stood trial for ‘insulting’ Erdogan over six years: reportTurkey's President Erdogan says may be time for new constitution Turkey rejects US criticism of student protest crackdown, including mass detentionsMajority of US senators urge Biden to press Turkey on rights
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Erdogan bodyguard commits suicide, cites insults and threats in note: Report

18 Mar 2021
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How worried should we be about reports of blood clots and AstraZeneca’s vaccine?

March 18, 2021

Europe’s drug watchdog is reviewing a small number of reports of bleeding, blood clots and low platelet counts in people who have received AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine.The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said it has so far found no causal link between the vaccine and the incidents. The World Health Organization has also said there was no proven link and people should not panic.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.At least 13 EU member states including Germany, France, Italy have suspended use of the shot pending the outcome of EMA’s probe.Here’s what we know so far:What has happened?More than 45 million COVID shots by all manufacturers have been administered across the EU and the European Economic Area since vaccinations started almost three months ago.The EMA is investigating reports of 30 cases of unusual blood disorders out of 5 million people who got the AstraZeneca vaccine in the EU.The EMA’s focus and primary concern is on cases of blood clots in the head, a rare condition that’s difficult to treat called cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT).In Germany, seven people aged 20 to 50 have been diagnosed with CVT up to 16 days after vaccination as per Monday, according to the national vaccine authority Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI). Based on the known rate of CVT in the general population, the PEI would have expected one case in 1.6 million.What have other countries and AstraZeneca said?Britain has administered more than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and reports of blood clots were no greater than would have occurred naturally. The UK’s medicine regulator has urged Britons to keep on getting their vaccines, including the AstraZeneca shot.Canada has said health experts are sure all COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the country are safe, including AstraZeneca’s.AstraZeneca said on Sunday a review of safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the United Kingdom and European Union with its vaccine had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.What is the EMA investigating?EMA investigators are checking if the frequency of incidences is higher in the vaccinated population than normal background rates.The normal frequency is drawn from public health statistics or insurance records. This would be combined with a medical analysis of each case and insight from scientific literature.EMA’s head of safety monitoring, Peter Arlett, added the rarity of CVT meant the watchdog would have to rely more heavily on case-by-case analysis rather than on the sparse statistical data.A spokeswomen for Germany’s vaccine authority, which is part of the investigation, said EMA would not rule on causality.Instead, EMA will assess the likelihood of an increased risk of the condition and weigh that against the benefits of fighting COVID-19 and providing relief for health systems.For example, the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna have been linked with increased risk of anaphylaxis, but they are still recommended because benefits outweigh the risks of the side effect, which can be treated.The regulator has said it remains for now “firmly convinced” that the product’s benefit outweighs any risks.What did the clinical trials show?AstraZeneca and European regulators have said that concerns about blood coagulation disorders did not emerge during human trials.Safety monitoring after approval is key because extremely rare side-effects, or those affecting only a small subset of the population, are near impossible to identify during clinical trials, according to PEI.Are there precedents of vaccine safety scares?In Japan, a governmental recommendation for use of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer has been suspended since June 2013, due to media reports of an alleged pain syndrome. This has drawn criticism from the WHO.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.A study published in The Lancet Public Health last year concluded a continued suspension would lead to thousands of cancer deaths over the next decades.In Ukraine, deep mistrust of vaccines has allowed measles to grow into an epidemic. Vaccine hesitancy there is rooted in corruption and mistrust of authority but also in a temporary government suspension in 2008, when a 17-year-old boy died shortly after receiving a measles-rubella vaccine.Read more:Norway says too soon to determine if AstraZeneca jab causes blood clotsHere are the countries suspending AstraZeneca’s vaccine over blood clot concernsIndia backs AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as cases soar
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: How worried should we be about reports of blood clots and AstraZeneca’s vaccine?