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PHARMACEUTICAL giant AstraZeneca admitted that its widely used Covid-19 vaccine, branded Covishield, can cause rare side effects including blood clots and low platelet count.
According to reports in The Telegraph, Covishield was developed by the British-Swedish company in collaboration with Oxford University, UK, and produced by the Serum Institute of India.
It was widely administered in over 150 countries, including Britain and India. Studies conducted during the pandemic found the vaccine was 60% to 80% effective in protecting against the novel coronavirus.
A class action lawsuit filed in the UK claimed that the vaccine led to deaths and severe injuries with one of the complainants alleging that the vaccine gave him a permanent brain injury after he developed a blood clot, preventing him from working.
While AstraZeneca has contested these claims, it admitted for the first time in one of the court documents that the vaccine can “in very rare cases, cause TTS”, or Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, which is characterised by blood clots and a low blood platelet count in humans.
The admission by AstraZeneca runs counter to the company’s insistence in 2023 that it would “not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level”.
The World Health Organisation confirmed that Covishield can have life-threatening side effects.
“A very rare adverse event called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, involving unusual and severe blood clotting events associated with low platelet counts, has been reported after vaccination with this vaccine.”
“In countries with ongoing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, the benefit of vaccination in protecting against Covid-19 far outweighs the risks,” the WHO added. – The Vibes, April 30, 2024
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