AstraZeneca Admits Blood Clots From COVID-19 Vaccine Can Occur

Updated on April 30, 2024

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Vial of Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine and syringe — Image by Marc Bruxelle via Shutterstock

Court documents from an ongoing class action lawsuit in the United Kingdom revealed that AstraZeneca admitted its COVID-19 vaccine 'can, in very rare cases,’ cause a rare blood condition.

The lawsuit, involving fifty-one plaintiffs, alleges that AstraZeneca's Covishield Covid Vaccine (ChAdOx1), developed by the University of Oxford, caused deaths and severe injury in dozens of people. This includes thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) — a rare condition that results in blood clots and a low blood platelet count.

According to The Telegraph, the plaintiffs are seeking around £100 million in compensation from the pharmaceutical giant.

TTS is thought to be a subset of a relatively new condition linked to COVID-19 vaccines called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).

Lawyers argue that AstraZeneca's vaccine is "defective," and its effectiveness has been "vastly overstated." However, the pharmaceutical company vehemently denies these claims.

AstraZeneca initially told lawyers it does not accept that the vaccine causes TTS at a generic level.

However, in legal documents submitted to the UK Court in February of this year, the drug company said, "It is admitted that the [AstraZeneca] vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known."

The drug company also said that TTS can occur in unvaccinated people, so expert evidence will be required to identify the cause of the syndrome in individual cases.

One plaintiff in the case, Jamie Scott, developed a blood clot and bleeding in his brain after receiving the vaccine in April 2021, resulting in long-term brain injury.

Scott's wife told The Telegraph, "The medical world has acknowledged for a long time that VITT was caused by the vaccine. It's only AstraZeneca who have questioned whether Jamie's condition was caused by the jab."

In a statement sent to The Telegraph, AstraZeneca said, "From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have an acceptable safety profile, and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects."

AstraZeneca's vaccine is no longer available in the UK and was not approved for emergency use in the United States.

What is the controversy surrounding AstraZeneca's COVID shot?

The World Health Organization (WHO) authorized the emergency use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.

However, according to a 2022 study, on March 11, 2021, three Nordic countries suspended the use of the vaccine, followed by other European countries, due to concerns about cases of blood clots occurring after vaccination.

Recently, scientists evaluated the rates of adverse side effects linked to Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines and found that all three were associated with slight increases in rare brain, heart, and blood-related events, including blood clots.

Specifically, the scientists discovered that people who received AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine had a slightly higher risk of developing a blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. The findings echoed evidence revealed in other studies, which is likely why the shot was suspended.

The pharmaceutical firm released a statement regarding the suspensions, claiming, "A careful review of all available safety data of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union (EU) and UK with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country."

AstraZeneca also asserted that clinical trials found no evidence of increased bleeding in over 60,000 participants enrolled.

In a December 13, 2022, statement, the drug company said that over 3 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine had been delivered to 180 countries worldwide. Based on model outcomes, the vaccine is estimated to have saved over 6 million lives during its first year of use.

Still, according to Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) data, as of May 2022, 443 cases of TTS following vaccination with AstraZeneca's vaccine had been reported in the UK. Eighty-one people died as a result.