For the first time, a pharmaceutical giant has admitted its vaccine products can cause blood clots and vaccine-related injuries or deaths.
AstraZeneca acknowledged the rare side effect in court during a lawsuit filed by people whose loved ones died or were injured by the vaccine.
This marks the first time that a pharmaceutical company has admitted in open court that its vaccine can cause blood clots, The Telegraph reports.
For years it was reported that vaccines caused blood clots and deaths. But the FDA and other health agencies denied the deaths were linked to COVID vaccines.
AstraZeneca, which is based in Cambridge, is contesting the lawsuit. But it acknowledged in a legal document in February that its vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome)”.
TTS is a medical condition that causes a low platelet count in the bloodstream, which can lead to blood clots. Platelets help the blood to clot.
Researchers discovered that the COVID vaccine, which is a modified cold virus, acts like a magnet for platelets in the blood.
The body then confuses the platelets for a foreign invader and releases antibodies to attack them. Platelets help the blood to form a clot to stop wounds from bleeding.
However, AstraZeneca causes antibodies to clump together with platelets causing large blood clots all over the body and in the brain.
51 lawsuits currently filed in the High Court seeking damages estimated to be worth about $107 million (USD) in total.
