A UK woman who was left paralyzed from the chest down after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine has been given $150,000 as compensation.
Claire Bowie, a 56-year-old mother from Dumbarton, Scotland, became paralyzed just two weeks after taking the AstraZeneca vaccine. While she’s doing better, after three years of rehabilitation, she can only manage 20 steps a day.
“I do physio every day, so I can walk. But it’s probably maybe about 20 steps,” Bowie said. “But it’s actually enough to get me from my bed to the toilet and to my living room chair. If I am being perfectly honest, I am just grateful to be alive.”
Bowie is receiving the money from the UK government’s Vaccine Damage Payment scheme that covers injuries from all vaccines, which her husband applied to while she was still in the hospital.
However, according to Bowie, the £120,000 (approximately 153,000 USD) is “woefully inadequate”.
“You think £120,000 is massive. I’ve been in the civil service all my life; I wasn’t used to that money. But the bottom line is it doesn’t clear your mortgage and modify your house.”
For their part, AstraZeneca still maintains that their vaccine is mostly safe and effective despite pulling their product from shelves around the world after admitting the risk of severe adverse events in court.
A similar case of paralysis across the pond
In Canada, a similar case of paralysis gained notoriety, this time in the weeks following the administration of the Moderna COVID vaccine.
Kayla Pollock, a 37-year-old mother from Ontario, became permanently paralyzed from the neck down in the weeks after receiving her Moderna booster.
But unlike Bowie, Pollock is not expected to ever completely recover.
Moreover, despite doctors diagnosing her with transverse myelitis as a direct result of the vaccine, she has yet to receive compensation from the Canadian government’s Vaccine Injury Support Program. Instead, she has been offered Medical Assistance in Dying (i.e., assisted suicide) on multiple occasions.
Pollock is now supporting herself through donations and is suing Moderna for $45 million.
