A 32-year-old British psychologist developed blood clots and died 10 days after taking his first dose of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report released Wednesday by a London coroner, in a case very rare of fatal vaccine reaction.
The inquest, requested by Charlotte Wright, widow of Dr. Stephen Wright, established that he died on January 26, 2021 due to “unintended consequences of vaccination”.
Charlotte Wright is suing AstraZeneca.
According to the report, Stephen Wright, of Kent, England, suffered a stroke and a brain hemorrhage, as well as vaccine-induced thrombosis, or blood clots, and thrombocytopenia, a condition that occurs when the level of platelets in the blood is abnormally Low.
Since 2021, researchers have cited rare cases in which people have developed the blood clotting syndrome known as TTS after receiving COVID vaccines from Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca, which are similar.
Cases usually occur within a few weeks of vaccination.
Experts continue to strongly recommend vaccination, saying that while vaccines are associated with certain rare side effects, those risks are dwarfed by the risks of the coronavirus itself.
“It’s actually quite rare, and at the end of the day, you have to weigh the risks against the benefits with whatever you do,” said Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. .
“And if you look at vaccines, they’re very safe and very effective.”
He added: “Nothing is without risk. And if you choose not to get vaccinated, you are at a greater risk of contracting the disease and suffering serious consequences.”
Researchers have calculated that coronavirus vaccines have saved millions of lives, including some 507,000 in the UK during the first year of administration.
London thrombosis expert Dr Beverley Hunt said blood clotting syndrome was a ‘very rare event’ after use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, estimated to occur in 1 in 50,000 people under the age of in their 40s and in 1 in 100,000 over the age of 40.
Dr Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said that, according to very rough figures, the UK received around 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with about 200 cases and 40 deaths related to blood clotting syndrome.
In April 2021, the UK banned the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine for those under 30, citing the risk of rare blood clots.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has restricted the use of the vaccine johnson&johnson in May 2022 to adults who cannot or refuse to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech OR modernalso citing the risk of rare blood clots.
AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine has not been approved for use in the United States, and the company withdrew its application for FDA approval last year.
In Australia, the country’s Department of Health and Old Age Care described TTS as a rare syndrome that had occurred in about 2-3 of every 100,000 people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Symptoms, such as a persistent severe headache and blurred vision, typically appear between four and 42 days after the first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, according to the department.
Australia suspended use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine last month, arguing that new vaccines better target current strains of the virus.
In an analysis published last month of vaccination and death records in Britain, researchers found that young women who received at least one dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine may be more likely to die of a heart problem within 12 weeks. from vaccination.
The researchers found no significant increase in the risk of death in any other subgroup or with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is also widely used in Britain.
And the study didn’t show that the vaccines caused the deaths.
Andrew Harris, one of the coroners who presented the findings of Wright’s inquest at London’s Inner South Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, described Wright’s death as a “cwhich is very unusual and deeply tragic,” the BBC reported.
The investigation concluded that Wright was a “fit and healthy man” who received his first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on January 16, 2021.
He woke up with a headache on Jan. 25, 2021, and later developed numbness in his left arm, according to research.
He went to the emergency room shortly after midnight and was diagnosed with arterial hypertension and sagittal sinus venous thrombosis.
He was transferred to another hospital around 6:30 in the morning, but could not be operated on due to bleeding and very low platelet counts.
He passed away at 6.33pm.
Charlotte Wright said in an Instagram post that she asked for the inquest so she could change her husband’s death certificate, which said he died of “natural causes,” including a stroke.
He said he wanted the blood syndrome vaccine-induced as a cause of death.
“Yesterday’s research confirmed this change, more than two years later.”
“Yesterday’s research confirmed this change, more than two years later,” Wright said.
Wright also said the investigation “allows us to continue our litigation against AstraZeneca. This is the written evidence,” the BBC reported.
Harris told the court it was “very important to record that this is the AstraZeneca vaccine, but it’s not like blaming AstraZeneca,” the BBC reported.
Wright, who has described herself as a “vaccine widow,” said she’s not against vaccines in general.
“I think they should be administered with proper informed consent,” she said.
AstraZeneca, which has named its vaccine Vaxzevria, said in a statement:
“We are very saddened by the death of Stephen Wright and extend our deepest condolences to his family on their loss.”
The statement said patient safety was the company’s top priority.
“From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, it has been continually shown that Vaxzevria has an acceptable safety profile and regulatory authorities around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of possible extremely rare side effects,” the statement said.
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.