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Oxford-AstraZeneca has always specified the rare side-effects of their COVID-19 vaccine.
Published: 01 May 2024, 10:09 AM IST
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AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company, that manufactured Covishield is in the talks again after they in a court document that their vaccine can cause rare side effects like thrombosis.
The AstraZeneca vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection was manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Another angle: Social media users are sharing this amid the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections to take a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party for endorsing and supporting Covishield.
The claim also mentioned that Adar Poonawala's Serum Institure donated RS 52 crores of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) via electoral bonds.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
How did media outlets misreport this?: The information about side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, includingTTS, is NOT new.
In 2021, AstraZeneca's packaging insert included all the risks of the vaccine along with the vaccine supplies.
This also clearly mentioned about the risk of TTS which is very rare, less than 1/100,000 patients.
This packaging insert was released in October 2021.
This packaging insert was released in October 2021.
(Source: Serum Institute /screenshot)
Apart from this, these inputs have been out there in the public domain since 2021 via research papers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO).
CDC shared how TTS has been rarely noticed after COVID-19 vaccination.
It specified that this occurred in "approximately four cases per one million doses administered."
This was shared by CDC about how TTS has been rarely noticed after COVID-19 vaccination.
(Source: CDC /screenshot)
WHO also corroborated this information in 2021 by specifying that cases of TTS have been reported after vaccination with COVID-19 Vaccines Vaxzevria and Covishield.
This information by WHO was published in 2021.
(Source: WHO /screenshot)
On 8 April 2021, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) carried a graphic that explained the risk of COVID-19 vaccines against other risky matters.
It showed that serious risks due to the vaccine's side-effects to a 25 year old has as low chance as 11 in a million whereas the same person dying in a car accident is 38 in a million.
Comparison drawn by BBC for AstraZeneca vaccine's side-effects.
(Source: BBC/Screenshot)
We reached out to AstraZeneca: WebQoof team received a reply from the pharma company via mail where they said, "Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems. Patient safety is our highest priority and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines."
We have also reached out to AstraZeneca for a comment and will update the copy once we hear back from them.
Conclusion: Clearly, the rare side effects of the vaccine is NOT new information as shared by many.
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