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The European Medicines Agency (EVA) safety committee concluded Wednesday that unusual blood clots should be identified as a very rare side effect of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
But EVA director EmA Cooke emphasized that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks and prevented serious illness and hospitalizations.
Vytautas Usonis, a professor at Vilnius University and a physician in the Department of Pediatrics, emphasized that special attention is paid to the safety of all vaccines. In the countries of the European Union, their structures collect as much information as possible and analyze it so that vaccines are as safe as possible.
He also highlighted the importance of advertising. “Even these rare adverse events, which occur less than once in a million people have been vaccinated … Even these cases are discussed, they are publicly discussed,” said the professor on the “News of the day” program on the radio Žinių . “.
Folk methods don’t always work
V.Usonis said that he understood that people want guarantees, but explained that there is no drug that does not have side effects.
“We are anxiously awaiting an official explanation of what could be the first signs of this adverse reaction, a disorder of the blood clotting system; “Recommendations of experts from the State Agency for Control of Medicines, recommendations of experts who work with blood clotting disorders, who can tell you what could be the same first signs to seek help in time,” said the professor.
He mentioned that people are already circulating various tips on how to prepare for vaccination, to reduce the potential risk. For example, very low doses of aspirin are suggested. However, V. Usonis emphasized that today there are no official recommendations. “It just came to our attention then. Sometimes it has the opposite effect than expected,” the doctor added.
V. Usonis himself recommended continuing the vaccination, because its benefits outweigh the possible risks.
“Let’s calculate what would happen if a million people were infected with COVID-19. How many of that million would be seriously ill? And speaking of the clinical manifestations of coronavirus complications, bleeding disorders are very well known and really a big problem. if a person becomes more seriously ill. That problem is incomparably greater than the potential risk of vaccination, “said the professor.
Speaking about the fact that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine is subject to different restrictions in different countries, V. Usonis noted that the EEA does not force countries to use their approved drugs. So it should come as no surprise that COVID-19 vaccines are not used uniformly either.
Thrombosis has many causes
Dalius Jatužis, a neurologist at Vilnius University Santara Clinics, denied that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine could be compared to the game of “Russian roulette.”
“The findings only state that for a certain group of people, COVID-19 vaccinators can expect a slightly higher incidence of thrombosis. Thrombosis is a blockage of blood vessels.
In this case, it is about clogging, thrombating the veins. But first of all it must be said that these cases are very rare. Compared to that threat, the very real danger heard daily posed by the coronavirus, that number is certainly very small.
On the other hand, there is no definitive conclusion that these microscopic increases in risk are clearly related to the vaccine.
Venous thrombosis has many risk factors. It is a well known disease. Cerebral venous thrombosis affects 3-5 people per million inhabitants each year. We have 10 to 15 cases of this disease in the Santara clinics each year ”, D. Jatužis shared his clinical experience.
They are usually middle-aged, with an average age of 35. Women are more likely to get sick.
The causes of the disease are very diverse: oral hormonal contraceptives, cancers and drugs used to treat cancers, systemic inflammatory diseases (lupus), fluid loss during severe vomiting, diarrhea. According to the neurologist, there are about 100 possible causes of cerebral venous thrombosis.
“Experience is already accumulating and there is no doubt that COVID-19 disease manifests itself in a highly activated blood clotting system. In fact, patients with severe forms of this disease have various thrombotic complications,” he said D. Jatužis.
According to him, this is also the focus of the clinical treatment of COVID-19 patients.
D. Jatužis could not say why the thrombotic events are related to the AstraZeneca vaccine and not to the COVID-19 vaccine from another pharmaceutical company.
“There is a possibility that the vaccine manufacturing process and its type itself may be different. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the immune mechanisms initiated by this type of vaccine are more related to the risk of thrombosis, ”said Jatužis, adding that researchers have already noted that thrombosis after vaccination is very similar to thrombosis. heparin-induced thrombosis.
Heparin is an anticoagulant that is used by one third of all hospitalized patients for any reason. It is estimated that this drug causes thrombosis in 760 cases out of 100,000.
At that time, German researchers found 1 case of thrombosis in 90 thousand. vaccinated people.
“It is 10 times less than heparin, a drug that is widely used every day around the world,” said the neurologist.
