The husband of BBC presenter and journalist Lisa Shaw is set to take legal action after his wife died a week after her AstraZeneca vaccine.
Lisa, who worked for BBC Radio Newcastle and previously Century and Real Radio, died in May 2021 due to complications from her first jab. At the time, her family claimed that the 44-year-old had developed blood clots due to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Now, her husband, Gareth Eve is set to take legal action. He said despite trying to "engage with the government, MPs and three prime ministers" no-one had "reached out" in return.
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The Department of Health said all vaccines had "undergone robust trials", and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was deemed safe for use in December 2020, with the government ordering 100 million doses.
However those under the age of 40 were offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab due to reports of extremely rare blood clots on the brain coupled with low blood platelet count.
Father-of-one Mr Eve is among a group of families who lost loved ones, allegedly to side effects caused by the vaccine, who are suing the makers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab.
He told the BBC: "It's not in my make-up to turn around and say I want to sue somebody but for almost two years we've tried to engage with the government and tried to engage with MPs since Lisa died and not one of them has reached out or engaged with us at all.
"Any engagement is fleeting at best so that's the reason that we're left with no alternative - if the government or AstraZeneca don't want to engage with us then what else are we supposed to do?"
He said all he wanted was "some sort of acknowledgement or recognition that these deaths have occurred".
Mr Eve added: "We're not crackpots or conspiracy theorists, we're husbands and wives and family members who have lost somebody - that's all it is. Whatever the money it's not going to bring my son's mam back."
In August 2021, Newcastle coroner Karen Dilks said Ms Shaw had died from a very rare "vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia", a condition which leads to swelling and bleeding of the brain.
Mr Eve said: "These things have happened to too many people and we're made to feel like it's a dirty secret, that we're talking about something we shouldn't be talking about.
"It's established it's been caused by AstraZeneca's Covid vaccination - it's not about Covid, it's not about how many lives the Covid vaccination has saved, it's about what this vaccination has done to Lisa and other families and not about how successful it was or whether somebody is anti-vax."
A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said: "More than 144 million Covid vaccines have been given in England, which has helped the country to live with Covid and saved thousands of lives.
"All vaccines being used in the UK have undergone robust clinical trials and have met the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA) strict standards of safety, effectiveness and quality."
It added vaccines were the "best way" to protect against disease from Covid and that the vaccine damage payments scheme was available for "individuals who have, in extremely rare circumstances, been severely disabled or died due to receiving a government-recommended vaccine for a listed disease".
In a statement, AstraZeneca said: "We are unable to comment on ongoing legal matters. Patient safety is our highest priority and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines. Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has reported health problems."
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