European Scientists Zero In On AstraZeneca Blood Clot Link
Excerpt below from:
Two hospital staffers in Denmark experienced blood clots and cerebral haemorrhaging after they were vaccinated against Covid-19 with AstraZeneca's jab. One has since died.
www.rt.com
Two teams of European scientists, working independently, say they believe they've identified the cause of a rare blood clotting condition that has occurred in some people after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
If correct, their research could mean any blood clots that occur could be easily treated.
There were reports earlier this month of roughly 30 blood clots occurring after vaccination, a few of them fatal. This led more than a dozen European countries to suspend their use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Most countries resumed using it, however, after the
European Medicines Agencyconducted an investigation and declared on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective. The EMA said the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the potential risks — and pointed out that the rate of post-vaccine blood clots was actually lower than the expected rate in the general population.
Now, a group of German researchers, led by professor Andreas Greinacher at the University of Greifswald, said on Friday in a
statement that they believe the AstraZeneca vaccine, in some cases, prompts overactivation of platelets in the blood, which can then cause potentially deadly clots. They said it's similar to what happens with a condition called
heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.
Greinacher and his colleagues analyzed the 13 cases of cerebral blood clots reported in Germany following the administration of roughly 1.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in that country. Of the 13 cases, 12 were women, and all the cases occurred between four and 16 days after the shot was administered. The EMA had also noted that almost all the reported clotting incidents were in women under the age of 55.
Greinacher and his colleagues say that in four of the patients, they were able to isolate and identify the specific antibodies that provoke the immune reaction leading to the cerebral blood clots.
While Greinacher and his colleagues were studying the cases in Germany, researchers at the Oslo University Hospital were investigating three post-vaccination blood clots in Norway. All the Norwegian cases were health care workers under the age of 50. One of them has since died.
Professor Pål Andre Holme told the
Norwegian newspaper VG that he's confident they've identified antibodies prompted by the vaccine that caused an overreaction by the immune system leading to the blood clots.
"Our theory that this is a strong immune response that most likely comes after the vaccine," Holme said. It's the same theory that Greinacher and his colleagues have put forward in Germany.
"There is no other thing than the vaccine that can explain this immune response," he said.
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