Blood Clot Risk from COVID-19 Higher than After Vaccines?

It has been well covered in the news media that some COVID-19 vaccines have recently faced headwinds as severe thrombotic complications have been observed in some people that received the vaccine. However, one fact that is not discussed much is that thrombotic complications, i.e. blood clotting disorders, are also among the myriad manifestations of COVID-19 infection. In this context we read with interest about a recent study coming out of University of Oxford that compared the risk of blood clots after COVID infections to risk of blood clots after COVID Vaccine. The authors found that the chance of developing cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was nearly 10 times higher in the two weeks following a diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection than after receiving an mRNA vaccine. Specifically, a COVID-19 diagnosis is associated with a 39-in-1-million chance of developing a rare blood clot condition, compared with about a 4-in-1-million chance after receiving the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines against the disease. The study, currently not available as a peer-reviewed version, is discussed by Shawna Williams in The Scientist.