A dad who suffered a brain injury just days after receiving a British-developed COVID vaccine has told Sky News he would never have had the jab if he had known of the risk of rare but serious side effects.
Jamie Scott, who has two young boys and is now unable to work, is suing AstraZeneca for what he says is damage caused by the jab in April 2021.
He alleges the pharmaceutical giant exaggerated the vaccine’s effectiveness and downplayed its risks.
AstraZeneca denies the claims made against them.
In his first TV interview, Mr Scott told Sky News: “I took it to protect the elderly people around me.
“AstraZeneca and the government need to explain the risk whenever you take medicine. If there’s a risk – I’ve got a young family – I would never have taken it.”
Ten days after having his first dose of the vaccine, Mr Scott woke up with a severe headache, started vomiting and had trouble speaking.
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He was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a clot that was stopping blood draining from his brain, as well as a haemorrhage in the brain itself.
He had surgery and was in a coma for just over a month. His wife Kate was told that if he survived he would never be the same again.
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Image: Kate Scott
Mr Scott now has a poor memory, has trouble reading, writing, listening and speaking, is partially blind in both eyes and suffers from pain and fatigue.
He says he can’t drive or play an active part in his boys’ lives.
“Everything about me has changed. Everything is difficult,” he said.
“I am happy to be alive. But I’m a shadow of what I was and every day is difficult.”
There are 51 cases lodged with the High Court with people claiming damage as a result of vaccination. Some are bereaved relatives.
Image: Vials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. File pic: PA
Mr Scott was given a payout of £120,000 from the government’s Vaccine Damage Payment (VDP) scheme.
But that comes nowhere near to replacing the career income he would have received as an IT professional.
“If Jamie was in a car crash there would have been insurance to cover the injuries and loss of income,” said Mrs Scott.
“We should not have to lose our house, or not be able to afford to fix our cooker when it breaks down or not be able to take the kids on holiday.
“If VDP was reformed, we would not have to litigate.”
To be given the full £120,000 payout from the vaccine damage scheme claimants have to be assessed as at least 60% disabled. Those with a lower degree of disability – which can still be life-changing – don’t qualify.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford. It went through accelerated testing and licensing because of the urgency of the pandemic and was authorised for emergency supply in December 2020.
Image: Jamie Scott
The government and many doctors assured the public that the vaccine was safe and urged people to take the jab.
But in the spring of 2021, there were reports around Europe of people suffering unusual blood clotting several days after vaccination.
Sarah Moore, a lawyer at Leigh Day Solicitors who is representing Mr Scott and the other claimants, told Sky News: “As early as the beginning of March in 2021, other European countries had withdrawn or suspended this product from the market because they had seen this problem.
“Our argument is that on the date upon which Jamie’s vaccine was applied, there was no warning.
“Now, if you are going to take a healthy person and give them any medical product, then generally most people would accept that has to be a warning within the product literature that specifies that risk, particularly when we’re talking about the gravity of risk in this context.”
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AstraZeneca says it updated product information for the vaccine in April 2021 to reflect the possibility in very rare cases that it could be a trigger for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome.
In a statement, it said: “Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems. Patient safety is our highest priority and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.
“From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.”
This is not anti-vax – it’s about being honest about medicines
There’s no question that what happened to Jamie Scott is an utter tragedy.
He had a great career, two boys and a loving wife. And when his invitation came for the COVID jab he seized the chance to protect his elderly relatives and do his bit to bring the pandemic to an end.
But that was the day that his life was up-ended, suffering what his lawyers say was a catastrophic reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He has been unable to work since, and probably never will. His wife Kate has given up her job to be his carer.
The Scotts argue that had he been in a car accident the insurers would have settled on a sum that reflected his likely career earnings and the amount of care he needed.
But he has been given just £120,000 from the government’s vaccine damage payment scheme. That’s the maximum payout.
It is a paltry sum when you are 44 – as he was at the time – with no other source of income and decades of life ahead of you.
The Department of Health and Social Care said it doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation or specific cases.
It added that the AstraZeneca jab hasn’t been used in the UK since the start of the booster programme in the autumn of 2021 because alternative mRNA vaccines were shown to be more effective.
However, the vaccine has been widely used around the world. In the first year of use, more than two billion doses were given, saving an estimated six million lives.
At the time of the rollout – and since – there has been a vocal minority of people who campaigned against COVID vaccines.
But Mr and Mrs Scott say they are not anti-vaxxers.
Mrs Scott said: “I would say we are vaccine-hesitant now because if it goes wrong you are left out in the cold.
“There has to be protection for those people who did the right thing when the government said it was safe and effective, time and time again.
“Even now if you try and question that narrative you’re shut down and told that’s anti-vax – and it just can’t be.”
Veterans are set to join the King for a VE Day tea party today as the prime minister has paid tribute to the “selfless dedication” of the war generation.
Among them will be a 99-year-old who took part in the D-Day landings and a 100-year-old woman who worked in the Special Operations Executive, known as Churchill’s Secret Army.
Director general of the Royal British Legion, Mark Atkinson, said the charity was “proud” to be taking a place “at the heart of these national celebrations and commemorations” on the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
He said it would be “one of our last opportunities as a nation to pay tribute to those veterans still with us today”.
Evacuees from World War Two and veterans who were still in active conflict after VE Day are among the other guests set to attend the tea party, which will take place in the presence of the King and other members of the Royal Family.
Image: The Royal Family will watch a military procession and flypast on Monday. File pic: PA
At 12pm, the Royal Family will observe a military procession, followed by a flypast.
It will be the first major VE Day anniversary without any of the royals who stood on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the day victory in Europe was declared, after the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
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‘Not just for Britain’
The celebrations come as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer praised veterans for their “selfless dedication” and thanked them for a “debt that can never fully be repaid” in an open letter ahead of VE Day.
He said the stories which will be heard this week from those who fought in the Second World War would be a reminder that the victory “was not just for Britain” but was also “a victory for good against the assembled forces of hatred, tyranny and evil”.
Sir Keir said the WW2 veterans “represent the best of who we are” and that without their service “the freedom, peace and joy that these celebrations embody, would not be possible”.
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VE Day veteran tells Sky News what the atmosphere was like when WWII was finally declared over in Europe
Personnel from NATO allies the US, France and Germany will be among those taking part in the procession in London.
The commemorations will begin with the words of Sir Winston Churchill‘s 1945 victory speech, spoken by actor Timothy Spall.
Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of the capital to witness the celebrations.
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On the anniversary itself on Thursday, marking exactly 80 years since the Allies formally accepted Germany’s surrender, a service of commemoration will be held at Westminster Abbey, to include a national two minutes’ silence.
Pubs across England and Wales, which usually close at 11pm, will also stay open for an extra two hours to allow punters more time to celebrate.
Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but “significant” terrorism investigations.
In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men – four of whom are Iranian nationals – as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody.
The Met said the arrests related to a “suspected plot to target a specific premises”.
In an update shortly after midnight, the force said: “Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.”
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Counter-terrorism policing, supported by police and colleagues from across the country, have conducted arrests in two really significant operations, both of which have been designed to keep the public safe from threats.
“There are several hundred officers and staff working on this investigation, and we will work very hard to ensure we understand the threats to the wider public.”
He refused to say if the plot was related to Israel, but described it as “certainly significant” and said “it is unusual for us to conduct this scale of activity”.
He also asked the public to “avoid speculation and some of the things that are being posted online”.
MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in October that the intelligence agency had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022. He warned of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK”.
Rochdale resident Kyle Warren, who witnessed one of the arrests at a neighbouring house, said his children had been playing in the garden when they came running into the house, saying a man in a mask had told them to go inside.
“Obviously, I was a bit worried,” Mr Warren told Sky News’ Lisa Dowd, and so he went into the garden to investigate.
“As we’ve come out, we just heard a massive bang, seen loads of police everywhere with guns, shouting at us to get inside the house.”
Image: Kyle Warren said his children were ‘petrified’
From upstairs in his house, he then heard “loads of shouting in the house” and saw a man being pulled out of the back of the house, “dragged down the side entry and thrown into all the bushes and then handcuffed”.
There were about 20 to 30 officers with guns, he believes.
“It’s just shocking, really. You don’t expect it on your doorstep.”
His daughters were “petrified… I don’t think they’ve ever seen a gun, so to see 20 masked men with guns running round was quite scary for them”.
Mr Warren, who only moved into his house a year ago, said he had “never really seen anyone going in or out” of the house and actually thought it was empty.
Image: One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
Image: One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
Arrests and searches around the country
The Met added officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with the investigation.
It said those detained were:
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Swindon area • A 46-year-old man arrested in west London • A 29-year-old man arrested in the Stockport area • A 40-year-old man arrested in the Rochdale area • A man whose age was not confirmed arrested in the Manchester area.
Image: A 29-year-old man was arrested in the Stockport area
Terror arrests in separate investigation
Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.
The suspects were detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These were two major operations that reflect some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years.
“This reflects the complexity of the kinds of challenges to our national security that we continue to face.”
Earlier, she thanked police and security services in a statement, and called the incidents “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats”.
Last year, the government placed the whole of the Iranian state – including its intelligence services – on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme.
It means anyone asked by Iran to carry out actions for the state must declare it, or face prison time.
And that comes in the context of increased warnings from government and the security services about Iranian activity on British soil.
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Counter terror officers raid property
Last year, the director general of MI5, Ken McCallum, said his organisation and police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents since January 2022.
He linked that increase to the ongoing situation in Iran’s own backyard.
“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or a broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he said.
The implication is that even as Iran grapples with a rapidly changing situation in its own region, having seen its proxies, Hezbollahin Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, decimated and itself coming under Israeli attack, it may seek avenues further abroad.
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The government reiterated this warning only a few weeks ago, with security minister Dan Jarvis addressing parliament.
“The threat from Iran sits in a wider context of the growing, diversifying and evolving threat that the UK faces from malign activity by a number of states,” Jarvis said.
“The threat from states has become increasingly interconnected in nature, blurring the lines between: domestic and international; online and offline; and states and their proxies.
“Turning specifically to Iran, the regime has become increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours.”
As part of that address, Jarvis highlighted the National Security Act 2023, which “criminalises assisting a foreign intelligence service”, among other things.
So it was notable that this was the act used in one of this weekend’s investigations.
The suspects were detained under section 27 of the same act, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.