AstraZeneca admits Covishield can cause a rare side effect
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New Delhi: British pharma giant AstraZeneca has admitted that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare condition leading to blood clots and low platelet count, NDTV reported citing The Telegraph (UK).
Covishield, which the Serum Institute of India produced having been developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, was widely administered in several countries including India during Covid pandemic.
Now AstraZeneca is facing lawsuit in the UK following reports of deaths and severe injuries with as many as 51 cases have reached before the UK High Court seeking damages up to 100 million pounds.
The first complainant in the case, Jamie Scott claimed to have received the vaccine in April 2021.
Scott complained that the vaccine caused him a permanent brain injury after a blood clot, preventing him from working.
He claimed that the hospital had told his wife thrice that he was going to die.
AstraZeneca reportedly admitted in a court document in February that the vaccine could cause cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome( TTS) ‘in very rare cases’, according to the report.
"It is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known...Further, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence," AstraZeneca was quoted as saying.
AstraZeneca told Jamie Scott’s lawyers in 2023 that "we do not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level" and its latest admission contradicts it.