An infectious diseases expert says the latest death from the COVID-19 vaccine must be kept in perspective.

A woman from New South Wales died after developing a rare blood clot from the Astra Zeneca jab.

Head of infectious diseases at Mater Hospital Brisbane, Associate Professor Paul Griffin, said while incidents of the “very rare” blood clot are increasing, the mortality rate has gone down.

“There is no question the rate of this event has appeared to go up in recent times, but a large proportion of that is because we are much better at recognising it,” he said.

“We are picking it up earlier so we are diagnosing a lot more people with it.

“We have seen the rate of this event go up, but we have seen the mortality rate go down very significantly.

“It’s very clear the benefits of this vaccine still outweigh those risks.”

Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association WA president said there needs to be more discussion about providing the Pfizer vaccine to over 50s.

Andrew Miller said offering both jabs will speed up the rollout.

“We have got to get much better communication from the government around encouragement, around positivity,” he said.

“The important thing is to say when are we going to make Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax available to those over 50.

“Tell them when they will get a choice.”

Yesterday, the Premier has made it clear people aged over 50 will not be given the Pfizer formula at state-run clinics.

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