BBC presenter dies after getting AstraZeneca vaccine

An award-winning BBC radio presenter died as a result of complications from the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, a coroner has concluded.

Lisa Shaw, who worked for BBC Radio Newcastle, died at the city’s Royal Victoria infirmary in May, a little more than three weeks after her first dose of the vaccine developed by academics at Oxford University.

The inquest heard that Shaw, 44, had been admitted to hospital after doctors investigating her complaints of headaches found she had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

Karen Dilks, the senior coroner for Newcastle, gave a narrative conclusion. “Lisa died due to complications of an AstraZeneca Covid vaccine,” she said.

Shaw, who was referred to by her married name, Lisa Eve, during the hearing, started complaining of headaches a few days after her vaccination. She eventually visited a hospital A&E department in Durham, where she was diagnosed with a blood clot.

She was transferred to the Victoria Royal infirmary where she received a number of treatments, including cutting away part of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain, but despite those efforts she died on 21 May.

Her husband, Gareth Eve, attended the inquest with other members of the family.

Tuomo Polvikoski, a pathologist, told the coroner that Shaw was fit and healthy before receiving the vaccine. Asked about the underlying cause of the fatal clotting on her brain, he said the clinical evidence “strongly supports the idea that it was, indeed, vaccine induced”.

“Based on available clinical information, it seems to be the most likely explanation,” he said.

Shaw’s death came weeks after the UK’s vaccine advisory panel restricted use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to the over-40s, after rare reports of recipients developing unusual blood clots with low platelets.

A number of other countries imposed similar restrictions or suspended use of the vaccine entirely.