Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, British-Swedish pharma giant As❀traZeneca has made a big revelation about its COVID Vaccine. The vaccine, commonly known as Covishield in India, has been linked to cause TTS - a rare condition of blood clots꧋ and low platelet counts.
Four years afte♈r the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccines emerged, British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has now admitted that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause a rare but major side effect. As reported by The Telegraph UK, the pharma giant has admitted in court documents that the AZ vaccine can lead to blood clots and a low platelet count.
This big revelation from AstraZeneca comes after a lawsuit was filed against the pharma giant over claims that its COVID vaccine have caused deaths and severe injuries amongst several people. Victims impacted by Vaxzevr﷽ia (known as Covishield in India) filed a case with the UK High Court and have sought damages of up to 100 million pounds.
As AstraZeneca continues to fight this case, the revelations made by the British-Swedish giant have resurrected💮 the fears and controversies which emerged in 2021, when the vaccine was rolled out.
AstraZeneca, along with Oxford University developed its Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine - AZD12222 or Vaxzevriaꦏ , was commonly known as Covishield in India and was designed to protect the human body againꦦst SARS-Cov-2 virus.
In India, the AstraZeneca 🙈vaccine was manufactured by Serum Institute of India. SII also manufactꦯured the vaccine for distribution to other low and middle income countries fighting the pandemic.
The AZ vaccine worked by utilising a weakened version of the common cold virus (adenovirus) found in chimpanzees, which was modified to carry the protein gene of COVID. The vaccine, once injected, would produce antibodi✱es and activate T-cells to fight off the COVID-19 virus.
Shortly after🐠 the vaccine was approved for the public and administered, reports of its side-effects caused widespread panic amongst the public.
As per the World Health Organisation, side-effects such as discomfort at the injection site, fatigue, fever, headache, nausea, joint or muscle pain, swelling, redness at the injection site, dizziness, sleepiness, sweating, abdominal pain, and fainting - were named and commonly reported by those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine. The UN agency added that these side effects had also been reported from other C✤OVID vaccines and were termed as "short-term" effects.
Hꩵowever, along with these short term effects, many reported that the AZ vaccine can also cause blood clots, heart inflammation and an array of cꦺardiovascular complications.
Despite its widescale production, many countries decided to ban AstraZeneca's vaccine after cases ♉of blood clots due to the vaccine were reported.
Denmark, ꦚIreland, Thailand, The Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Congo and Bulgaria were amongst the first to ban the vaccine. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Slovenia, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia soon followed suit due to blood clots reported amongst those who were administered the vaccine and due to public concerns of the safety of the vaccine.
However, during the pande🐠mic, the World Health Organisation addressed the concerns around Covishield and stated that the benefits outܫweigh the risks and hence urged for vaccinations to continue.
Fast forward to 2024, the Britis𒁃h pharma giant has admitted in court that its vaccine can cause a condition which involves t♔he formation of blood clots and low platelet levels in humans.
As stated in the documents submitted to the UK High Court, AstraZeneca has admitted that its vaccine can cause a rare side effect called ꦬThrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome. The company admitted that "the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS."
However, the exact causal mechanism of how the vaccine cau෴ses TTS remains unknown. The pharma company added that TTS can also occur without the vaccine as the causation would differ in each individual case.
Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) is a condition associated with certain COVID-19 vaccines. The condition has mainly been linked with Covishield and Johnson and Johns💃on's Janssen vaccine against the novel coronavirus.
The condition presents itself with blood clots in unusual parts of t🅘he body and is accompanied by low platelet counts. Some of its symptoms include severe h𒊎eadache, blurred vision, difficulty speaking, chest pain, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, and leg swelling.
With the exact causation not known, TTS is also seen as an immune respon꧋se t🐎riggered by the adenovirus vector used in vaccines such as Covishield.