Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has reportedly admitted that its widely used Covid vaccine, branded Covishield, can cause rare side effects such as blood clots and low platelet counts.
As reported by the British newspaper Independent, Covishield was developed by the British-Swedish company in collaboration with the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, and is produced by the Serum Institute of India, while it was widely distributed in more than 150 countries. Some studies conducted during the pandemic found that the vaccine was 60% to 80% effective in protecting against the new coronavirus.
However, research has since found that Covishield can potentially cause blood clots in some people, which can be fatal.
A class-action lawsuit filed in the UK claimed the vaccine led to deaths and serious health problems and sought up to £100m in damages for around 50 victims. One of the complainants claimed the vaccine caused permanent brain damage after he developed a blood clot, preventing him from working.
While AstraZeneca disputed those claims, it admitted for the first time in one of the court documents that the vaccine can "in very rare cases cause TTS," or Thrombocytopenia Thrombosis Syndrome, characterized by blood clots and low platelet counts.
“He admits that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known,” the company said in court documents in February, according to the Telegraph. “Furthermore, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Justification in each individual case will be a matter to be proven by experts," he added.
AstraZeneca's admission contradicts the company's insistence in 2023 that it "would not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine in general," the Independent reports.
The World Health Organization has confirmed that Covishield can have potentially life-threatening side effects. "A very rare adverse event called Thrombocytopenia Thrombosis Syndrome, which involves unusual and serious blood clotting events associated with low platelet counts, has been reported after vaccination with this vaccine."
Source: protothema.gr
