According to significant multinational research released on Thursday, AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine has been associated with a 30% increased chance of developing an extremely uncommon blood clotting disease compared to the Pfizer vaccination.
Prior research suggested that Covid vaccines that use an adenovirus vector, or “engineered” virus, such as those from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, could potentially cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) in a minimal number of cases. As a result, several nations have already changed their recommendations.
Low amounts of blood platelets, the tiny cell fragments in our blood that stop bleeding, cause thrombocytopenia, which can result in potentially fatal blood clots.
According to significant multinational research released on Thursday, AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine has been associated with a 30% increased chance of developing an extremely uncommon blood clotting disease compared to the Pfizer vaccination.
Prior research suggested that Covid vaccines that use an adenovirus vector, or “engineered” virus, such as those from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, could potentially cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) in a very small number of cases. As a result, several nations have already changed their recommendations.
Low amounts of blood platelets, the tiny cell fragments in our blood that stop bleeding, cause thrombocytopenia, which can result in potentially fatal blood clots.
According to the research, 862 “thrombocytopenia occurrences” were reported in total for AstraZeneca in the 28 days following a first dosage, as opposed to 520 for Pfizer.
This indicated that AstraZeneca’s vaccination had a 30% greater risk of thrombocytopenia than Pfizer’s.
However, there was no risk difference between any vaccinations regarding a second dosage.
Since the study was observational, cause and effect could not be established. However, the researchers said that further investigation revealed the data to be reliable.
Although extremely rare, the report stated that these risks “should be taken into account when planning subsequent immunisation programs and future vaccine development.”
The “well-designed” study, according to microbiologist Sarah Pitt of Brighton University in the UK, “adds to the data indicating that all vaccinations are safe and effective.”
Only 0.04 percent of vaccination doses in Germany and the UK resulted in “very uncommon” cases of thrombocytopenia, and she told AFP.
She continued for the older and younger age groups that are more at risk, most nations have already stopped using adenovirus Covid vaccines.
The majority of European nations have switched to mRNA vaccinations. The US never approved AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which restricted the use of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year to a select group of people.
However, the vaccinations produced by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are crucial to Covax’s worldwide distribution scheme, which provides doses to lower-income countries.
