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WA para-athlete Robyn Lambird says AstraZeneca COVID vaccine made her ‘crook as a dog’ but it was worth it

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Ben O'SheaThe West Australian
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WA para-athlete Robyn Lambird says the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine made her crook as a dog when she got the jab this week, but said she was still “pretty grateful” to get it and encouraged everyone to do the same.

For Lambird, the decision to get the vaccine was a no-brainer, and not just because it makes the prospect of travelling to Tokyo in August for the Paralympics a lot more appealing.

As someone with cerebral palsy, the elite athlete is particularly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, so she was keen to get the protection the vaccine provides as soon as she could.

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Then, a day after she got the jab, Prime Minister Scott Morrison came out and said Australians under 50 should not get the AstraZeneca jab because of a rare but dangerous blood clotting side effect.

“But I’d read up on the stats before I got the jab, so I realised that, while it was a possible side-effect, it’s pretty uncommon, so I wasn’t too worried,” Lambird told The West Live.

NSW paused administration of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine today after the Federal Government announcement last night.

The State’s health department said in a statement it had temporarily put AstraZeneca vaccinations on hold in order to update “informed consent information” given to recipients ahead of their jabs.

It’s a questionable strategy given people have more chance of blood clotting from the oral contraceptive pill than the COVID vaccine.

Lambird is glad she got in first, and said as much to her near 20,000 Instagram followers in a post that said she was “hoping the government can get the rollout on track”.

Next week will mark 100 days until the Tokyo Olympics in July, followed a month later by the Paralympics, and, as the world’s third fastest female para-athlete in the 100m T34 class, Lambird has high expectations.

“Everyone dreams of going to the Paralympics, who is an elite athlete with a disability, so it’s really the highest level of competition and it’ll make the last five years of hard work worth it,” she said.

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