That's definitely not true. I remember clearly health authorities and the media were completely open that 1 in N people will die from blood clots. From the beginning.
This is blatant historical revisionism. It was always "save and effective" and that's all people know. Furthermore if you refused to take it you were forced out of the company.
You could both be right, especially depending on where you live and work.
It was always "effective enough relative to the safety risk of rare blood clots". There was never any attempt to suppress knowledge of blood clots, it was international news and widely acknowledged by everyone as a risk associated with the AZ vaccine.