Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca recently acknowledged in court documents that its COVID-19 vaccine can cause very rare but potentially fatal side effects, including blood clots and low blood platelet counts.
This admission follows a class-action lawsuit filed in the UK alleging the vaccine caused deaths and serious injuries in roughly 50 individuals. The lawsuit seeks £100 million in damages.
The company confirmed that their vaccine, “in very rare cases, can cause TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome),” according to court documents obtained by The Telegraph in February this year. But, they added that the exact cause of this reaction remains unclear.
This admission appears to contradict AstraZeneca’s previous position. In 2023, the company reportedly maintained they wouldn’t “accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a generic level.”
TTS is a serious condition involving blood clots combined with low platelet levels. It can be life-threatening. A tragic example is BBC Radio presenter Lisa Shaw, who died just a week after receiving her first AstraZeneca dose in May 2021. An inquest later linked her death to “vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.”
The World Health Organization had previously acknowledged the potential for rare but serious side effects with the AstraZeneca vaccine. It said “a very rare adverse event called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome” has been reported following vaccination.
While the risk of TTS may be low, this highlights the importance of people giving informed consent before receiving any COVID-19 vaccine.
By the end of 2023, Tonga reported just under a total of 17,000 confirmed cases and 12 deaths from COVID -19.
While a definitive number is unavailable, Tonga likely received around 80,000 AstraZeneca doses in 2021 with some 10,000 doses reportedly returned to COVAX due to slow uptake in 2022.
Tonga was the third Pacific country to receive the COVID-19 AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines in early 2021.
