Thursday, May 20, 2021

Another Blood Clotting Case From AstraZeneca Vaccine

                 (Staffarticle from the ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on May 20, 2021.) 

SA man in 'very serious' condition with blood clotting connected to AstraZeneca COVID–19 vaccine: A 53-year-old South Australian man is being treated in intensive care for blood clotting that health authorities say is linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

It is the first case recorded in the state, with 150,000 South Australians so far receiving the AstraZeneca jab. Authorities are also investigating a second case of blood clotting in an 87-year-old woman who received the AstraZeneca vaccine last month.

South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier, said the man was in a "very serious condition" after receiving his first dose on May 4. He was admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain on Tuesday.

SA Health received confirmation from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) that his clotting was linked with the AstraZeneca vaccine last night. "My thoughts and the thoughts from others in SA Health are with him and his family at the moment," Professor Spurrier said. She said the case was "obviously of great concern but not unexpected". She is in a stable condition, Professor Spurrier said.

One fatality linked to AstraZeneca vaccine

The two cases bring the total Australian reports of cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), including suspected cases, following the AstraZeneca vaccine to 24. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) said 21 other linked cases were out of hospital, while another two were in hospital.

There has been one fatality, a 48-year-old woman from New South Wales. About 2.1 million AstraZeneca jabs have been administered in Australia. Immunisation Coalition chairman Rod Pearce said there appeared to be about 11 blood clot cases per 1 million people vaccinated, which was about the same number that could be anticipated going on overseas trends.

"It's important we keep rolling out our vaccine program because in the long run it's going to be our fight against the disease, which is more important than managing the side effects," Dr Pearce said.

Professor Spurrier said people who have had a vaccine should watch for a severe persistent headache or severe abdominal pain between four and 28 days after receiving a dose. Her husband, physiotherapist David Spurrier, received the AstraZeneca vaccine last Thursday.

She said he was "not getting too stressed about it" but "keeping a bit of an eye on" possible blood clot symptoms. "Just being aware if there was anything like that that he would need to go and get a health check," she said. Professor Spurrier also announced a new case of COVID-19 reported in hotel quarantine, bringing South Australia's total to 747.  Four new cases were reported on Tuesday.

Seven deaths in UK among AstraZeneca vaccine recipients  

The UK medical regulator said Saturday that out of 30 people who suffered blood clots after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, seven have died. "Out of the 30 reports up to and including 24 March, sadly 7 have died," the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement sent to AFP.

Announcing the thirty blood clot cases on Friday, MHRA said "the benefits of the vaccines against Covid-19 continue to outweigh any risks", urging the public to keep taking the vaccine. Up to 24 March, 22 reports of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and eight of other thrombosis events with low platelets were logged.

"The risk of having this specific type of blood clot is very small," the agency noted. "The number and nature of suspected adverse reactions reported so far are not unusual in comparison to other types of routinely used vaccines," the MHRA online statement on April 2 said. However there were no such reports for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The Netherlands on Friday became the latest in a line of European countries to halt vaccinations with the AstraZeneca jab for people under the age of 60 amid fears of links to rare blood clots. The move came after five new cases in the Netherlands affecting women between 25 and 65 years of age, one of whom died. Germany had taken a similar decision earlier this week.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has also previously declared the AstraZeneca vaccine safe, as has the World Health Organization, is expected to announce updated advice on the issue on April 7.

The EMA said again on Wednesday it believes the vaccine is safe and that experts have found no specific risk factors such as age, gender or medical history. Britain, where the vaccine was developed with Oxford University, has been one of the countries worst-hit by coronavirus with nearly 127,000 dead.

Approval of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine In US?

On the evening of March 24, AstraZeneca announced its Covid-19 vaccine is 76 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease, based on its Phase III trial of over 32,000 participants mostly in the United States. The results concluded a whirlwind of news stories about the AstraZeneca vaccine in March.

At this point, the vaccine has been approved for use in the United Kingdom and several European Union countries since December. It has not yet been approved in the U.S. because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked the company to provide results from a large-scale trial, Umair Irfan reports for Vox.

Experts have expected the data to show that the vaccine is safe and effective, but worry how AstraZeneca’s recent hurdles might impact its reputation around the world. “I think the way that the ship will be righted is by having the FDA’s scrutiny,” says biostatistician Stephen Evans of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to Smriti Mallapaty and Ewen Callaway at Nature. Evans expects the vaccine will be approved when the FDA is able to review the raw data.

On March 18, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) completed its review of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is made in partnership with Oxford University, and concluded that it is safe and effective, BBC News reports. The E.U.’s medical regulation agency had revisited the vaccine’s safety because, out of about 17 million people who had gotten the shot by early March, 37 people developed unusual blood clots.

More than 20 countries suspended use of the vaccine while the EMA reviewed the cases, Kai Kupferschmidt and Gretchen Vogel report for Science magazine. Most countries resumed vaccine use after the EMA concluded that it is safe, but last week Friday, Norway extended its suspension of the vaccine until April 15, Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik report for Reuters. Norwegian officials hope more data about the cause of the blood clots will become available soon.

On March 22, AstraZeneca released its initial results of the Phase III trial, which showed slightly higher effectiveness at preventing Covid-19 than the latest results. The results were long-awaited. The FDA asked the company to conduct a larger trial in order to get clearer data than they gathered in their first rounds of testing.

In the first trials in the U.K., some participants unexpectedly received half-doses of the first shot in the vaccine, and the early trials did not include enough people older than 65, reports the Washington Post.

By the morning of March 23, officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released a letter from its data and safety monitoring board that's been examining the AstraZeneca trial, Andrew Joseph reports for STAT News. The letter stated that AstraZeneca had used outdated data to reach its efficacy number. The move was unprecedented; usually, monitoring boards keep their correspondence with companies private.

“We just felt we could not remain silent. Because if we did remain silent, we could be understandably accused of covering something up. And we definitely didn’t want to be in that position,” says Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, to STAT News. “In my mind, it’s an unforced error by the company.”


AstraZeneca explained the initial results included data gathered until February 17, per Nature. Within 48 hours, AstraZeneca released its revised results with updated data. According to the statement, the vaccine has 76 percent efficacy at reducing symptomatic Covid-19 overall, and 85 percent efficacy in people 65 years old and older. A specific review of the 32,000 participants in the U.S. trial found no cases of the unusual blood clots that caused hesitation in Europe, per STAT News.

“The benefits of these results will mainly be for the rest of the world, where confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine has been eroded,” said Evans to the New York Times. AstraZeneca plans to submit the data for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks and then the FDA additional time to review the data and make its decision.

The AstraZeneca vaccine may not have a large role in vaccinating people in the United States because the three companies already approved to supply vaccines in the country agreed to provide enough doses for anyone who wants one this year. But AstraZeneca is participating in the COVAX program to provide doses to low- and middle-income countries for no profit, and FDA approval is a global gold-standard for safety of medications.

“At the end of the day, the FDA looks at the data, not the press releases,” says the FDA’s former chief scientist Jesse Goodman to Vox. “Looking at that data and doing their own analysis is what’s going to determine whether this vaccine gets an [emergency use authorization], whether the benefits outweigh the risk.”


(Blogger's Notes: The rural doctor GP shown in this ABC's 7:30 program aired recently has been trying unsuccessfully to get Pfizer Vaccine for herself while she has been jabbing the local populace with AstraZenica vaccine. I was shocked after seeing the program. Maybe there is something we the general public do not know about the AstraZeneca vaccine but the doctors obviously know.)

Related posts at following links: