Every vaccine carries a risk. If benefits outweigh it, you use it: Dr Shahid Jameel
An ongoing lawsuit in the UK over Covid vaccination has caused a global furore, including in India.UK’s The Telegraph has reported that AstraZeneca admitted in court documents that its Covid vaccinecan cause blood clots in rare instances. The pharma major is facing a class action lawsuit over claimsthat its vaccine, developed with University of Oxford, caused death and injuries. In India, where themajority of people were administered Covishield, as the AstraZeneca vaccine was known here, thenews has caused concern. Dr Shahid Jameel, virologist and research fellow at Green Templeton College,University of Oxford, tells Indulekha Aravind that there is no cause for worry as benefits far outweigh risks. But playing politics with this, he says, is both wrong and dangerous. Edited excerpts:
AstraZeneca’s admission in a UK court that its Covid vaccine can cause a rare side-effect has sparked concern, especially in India. Is there cause for worry?
This is not new. It has been coming up since 2021. Based on The Telegraph report that everyone seems to be referring to, what did AstraZeneca admit? It said there was a very rare chance of something called TTS. TTS is thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome. Thrombosis means blood clots, thrombocytopenia means a reduction in the level of platelets. Platelets prevent bleeding so people who have low platelets bleed at the slightest provocation and this bleeding leads to internal clotting. A dengue virus infection can also cause thrombocytopenia. So they have admitted to a very rare event.
Now, how rare is very rare? Different countries have computed their own risk. The UK computed a risk of four cases of TTS in 1 million vaccinated people. The EU has computed it to be one in 100,000
