AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vax Can Cause Rare Blood Clots, Says Company: Is It Unsafe?

The European Medicines Agency in 2021 had said that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine can cause blood clots.

The European Medicines Agency in 2021 had said that Covishield can cause blood clots and low blood platelets.

(Photo: FIT)

Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine can cause rare side effects like thrombosis, the company admitted in a court document.

The British pharmaceutical company, facing a lawsuit for allegedly causing deaths and health effects due to its vaccine, revealed to the court that their vaccine "can, in very rare cases, cause TTS (Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome)," reported The Telegraph (UK).

The Astrazeneca vaccine was manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India and sold under the brand name of Covishield.

What’s the legal dispute? At least 51 people in the UK have taken AstraZeneca to the UK High Court for allegedly causing ‘deaths and injuries’ due to its vaccine, seeking compensation and damages up to 100 million pounds.

The first complainant in the matter, Jamie Scott, allegedly took the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021 and suffered a permanent brain injury following that.

What is Thrombosis? Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome is a condition that leads to blood clots in the body, and reduces the platelets as well.

Common symptoms include,

• Pain or numbness in one leg

• Swelling in the leg or arm

• Chest pain

Adverse side effects are not new information: While Thrombosis can be caused by injury, illness and autoimmune conditions, it can also be triggered by some medicines and vaccines known as Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).

The European Medicines Agency in 2021 had stated that there was a “causal link” between blood clots with low blood platelets and the administration of COVID-19 Astrazeneca vaccine. But it had added that they should be “listed as very rare side effects.”

In 2021,the British Medical Journal in a large UK-based study also found that people who took the AstraZeneca vaccine, “for short time intervals after the first dose” were at an increased risk of “blood-related adverse events leading to hospital.”

Interestingly, a largescale study conducted in the UK in 2021 found that the risk of thrombosis is significantly higher after infection with SARS-CoV-2, than it is from being vaccinated against the virus.

What next? While AstraZeneca did admit in court that rare side effects are possible, it did not acknowledge that the vaccine had any defects, was not effective, or that it caused any injuries or deaths.

The company said,

“It is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known. Further, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.”

The UK government has not made any comments on the issue so far.