Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that its vaccine - developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford - could lead to death and serious injury.
The legal battle was brought by Jamie Scott, a father of two who suffered a blood clot that left him brain-damaged after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in April 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott is seeking compensation for claims that AstraZeneca's vaccine was "defective" and less safe than expected. AstraZeneca has denied the allegations.
In May 2023, AstraZeneca asserted that "we do not accept that TTS (Thrombotic thrombocytopenic syndrome) is caused by the vaccine at a general level," as quoted by The Daily Telegraph.
TTS is a rare condition in which a person develops blood clots that can reduce blood flow when combined with low platelet counts, making it difficult to stop bleeding. Symptoms of TTS include severe headaches and abdominal pain.
Despite earlier denials, AstraZeneca said in documents filed with the UK Supreme Court in February that it "acknowledges that in very rare cases the AstraZeneca vaccine may cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not yet clear."
According to the Telegraph, the pharmaceutical company added: "Moreover, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AstraZeneca vaccine (or any other vaccine)."
AstraZeneca said the available data showed the vaccine had an "acceptable safety profile" and that "regulators around the world have consistently stated that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risk of extremely rare potential side effects".
Dozens of Western countries suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the spring of 2021 over concerns it could cause some patients to develop blood clots. At the time, the European Medicines Agency’s head of vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said there was a clear link between the AstraZeneca shot and blood clots in the brain, but insisted the benefits outweighed the risks.
AstraZeneca's SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is 72% effective, according to World Health Organization data. As of April 2021, more than 17 million people had received the vaccine in the EU and the UK, with just under 40 cases of thrombosis reported, according to the company.
Source
Comment (0)