Covishield: According to The Telegraph (UK), British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has acknowledged that the Covid vaccination may have uncommon side effects. The manufacturer of the vaccine has stated in court filings that Covishield may, in rare circumstances, result in a disorder that causes blood clots and low platelet counts.
Covishield, a product of the collaboration between AstraZeneca and Oxford University during the pandemic, was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and extensively utilized across the nation.
Currently, AstraZeneca is embroiled in a class action lawsuit in the UK, accused of its vaccine causing fatalities and severe injuries in numerous instances. In the UK High Court, 51 cases have been brought forward by victims, all seeking damages totaling up to 100 million pounds.
The UK government, which previously protected AstraZeneca from legal action, has yet to interfere in the case.
Only Very Seldom
Jamie Scott, the initial claimant in the case, claimed that he received the vaccine in April 2021, which resulted in a permanent brain lesion due to a blood clot. This has kept him from working, and the hospital has told his wife three times that he is going to die, he claims.
According to the newspaper, AstraZeneca has denied the charges, but stated in one of the court documents in February that Covishield can “in very rare cases, cause TTS”.
Humans with TTS (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome) have low blood platelet counts and blood clots.
It is acknowledged that TTS may very rarely result from the AZ vaccination. It is unknown what the causative process is. Moreover, TTS can also happen if the AZ vaccine—or any vaccine—is not received. Expert testimony will be required to determine causation in each unique case, according to AstraZeneca.
A U-turn
According to the report, AstraZeneca acknowledged this in a legal defense of Scott’s claim, which could result in compensation for the victims and their bereaved families.
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In addition, the company’s 2023 position—which stated to Jamie Scott’s attorneys that “we do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level”—is at odds with the most recent admission.
However, AstraZeneca has refuted the attorneys’ allegations that the vaccine is “defective” and that its effectiveness has been “vastly overstated”.
Following the commencement of the vaccine rollout in 2021, scientists discovered a connection between Covishield and a newly identified condition known as vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT), which lawyers argue is a subset of TTS. The report indicated that AstraZeneca does not seem to acknowledge this assertion.