Researchers at the University of Cardiff in the United Kingdom published a new report this week linking the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine with dangerous blood clots.
“Intriguingly, the reaction is not caused by the coronavirus particles contained in the vaccine, but the system used to deliver it inside the body,” writes the Telegraph. “The AstraZeneca vaccine encapsulates coronavirus genetic material inside a weakened version of the common cold virus — known as an adenovirus, which infects chimpanzees.”
“This new hybrid protein-virus confuses the immune system, which creates new antibodies, which themselves stick to the proteins, triggering the formation of dangerous blood clots,” adds the British newspaper. “The process happens only rarely, explaining why few people are affected by the condition.”
“We’ve been able to prove the link between the key smoking guns of adenoviruses and platelet factor four. What we have is the trigger, but there’s a lot of steps that have to happen next,” said one of the scientists behind the study.
“Although the research is not definitive, it offers interesting insights and AstraZeneca is exploring ways to leverage these findings as part of our efforts to remove this extremely rare side effect,” a spokesperson for the injection manufacturer said.
Read the full report here.
