Link between AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and confirmed thrombosis

An official of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed “a link” between AstraZeneca’s vaccine against the coronavirus and the thromboses recorded in people who received this vaccine, he assured on Tuesday in an interview to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.

“Now we can say it, there is clearly a link with the vaccine, which causes this reaction. However, we still do not know why (…) In the next few hours we will say that there is a link, but we have not yet understood why this is happening ”, said Marco Cavaleri, responsible for the vaccine strategy at the EMA.

The European authority must decide officially on this, Cavaleri advanced.

“We are trying to have a precise framework of what is happening, to define the syndrome due to the vaccine (…) Among those vaccinated, a number of cases of cerebral thrombosis in young people was recorded higher than expected. That we will have to say“he explained.

There have been concerns about possible serious, but rare, side effects in people vaccinated with AstraZeneca for several weeks. These would be cases of atypical thrombosis, some of them caused death.

In the UK, there have been 30 cases and seven deaths out of a total of 18.1 million doses administered through March 24.

For the EMA, “a causal link with the vaccine has not been demonstrated”, according to the executive director, Emer Cooke, explained several days ago.

For the European agency, according to current scientific knowledge, “there is no evidence to support restriction of the use of this vaccine in any population“.

Atypical phenomenon

Paul Hunter, a specialist in medical microbiology at the University of East Anglia, interviewed by AFP, “the evidence points to towards the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as the cause“, he assured.

The problems observed in some people vaccinated with AstraZeneca are not common thrombi (blood clots), as initially reported, but a “very atypical” phenomenon, said the French Medicines Agency (ANSM).

It is about “thrombosis of the large veins, atypical because of their location (especially cerebral, but also digestive), which can be associated with a thrombocytopenia (a deficiency in blood platelets) or with problems of coagulation”, such as bleeding, according to the ANSM.

In mid-March, the Paul-Ehrlich Medical Institute (PEI), which advises the German government, reported a “surprising accumulation of a very unusual specific form of cerebral venous thrombosis, associated with blood platelet deficiency”.

According to specialists, this very specific picture leads us to think of a phenomenon called disseminated intravascular coagulation (DICC).

As a precaution, several countries have decided to stop administering this vaccine to certain age groups, including France, Germany and Canada.

For AstraZeneca, the benefits of the Anglo-Swedish laboratory’s antidote in the prevention of covid-19 outweigh the risks of side effects and assured Saturday that “patient safety” is its “top priority”.

With information from AFP.