The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is reported to have admitted that its widely used COVID vaccine, marketed as Covishield, could cause rare side effects, such as blood clots and low platelet count.

According to the British newspaper Independent, Covishield was developed by the British-Swedish company in collaboration with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and is produced by the Serum Institute of India, while it has been widely administered in more than 150 countries. Some studies conducted during the pandemic found that the vaccine was 60% to 80% effective in protecting against the new coronavirus.

However, subsequent research has found that Covishield could potentially cause blood clots in some people, which could be fatal.

A collective lawsuit filed in the United Kingdom argued that the vaccine led to deaths and serious health problems and sought compensation of up to £100 million for around 50 victims. One of the claimants alleged that the vaccine caused permanent brain damage after developing a blood clot, preventing him from working.

While AstraZeneca disputed these claims, it admitted for the first time in one of the legal documents that the vaccine could “in very rare cases cause TTS,” or Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, characterized by blood clots and low platelet count.

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“It admits that the AZ vaccine may, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is unknown,” the company stated in the court documents in February, according to The Telegraph. “Furthermore, TTS can occur even in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine). The attribution in each individual case will be a matter for expert evidence,” it added.

AstraZeneca’s admission contradicts the company’s insistence in 2023 that it “would not accept that TTS is caused by the vaccine at a general level,” as reported by the Independent.

The World Health Organization confirmed that Covishield could have potentially life-threatening side effects. “A very rare adverse event called Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, which includes unusual and serious cases of blood clotting with low platelets, has been reported following vaccination with this vaccine.”