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Blood Clots & AstraZeneca Vaccine Revisited
Science Magazine ^ | 30 Mar 2021 | Derek Lowe

Posted on 04/14/2021 12:17:05 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

Once again, what’s going on with vascular events and the AZ/Oxford vaccine? I last wrote about this situation a couple of weeks ago, and it’s taken some real turns since then. At that point several EU countries had suspended dosing, but over the next week several began administering the vaccine again after the European Medicines Agency recommended it, in some cases with advisories about which age groups should be targeted.

But there’s more to the story, it seems. Here’s an excellent writeup at Science (open access) by Kai Kupferschmidt and Gretchen Vogel. A possible concern is what’s being called vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT) by Andreas Greinacher at Univ. Griefswald. This is a blood clotting syndrome that’s similar to what’s observed with the (already known) syndrome of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. That problem, first over 40 years ago, is a paradoxical effect that occurs in a few people of administering heparin for blood clotting problems and actually making the situation worse. The mechanism for HIT is apparently the generation of antibodies to the complex of heparin bound to platelet factor 4 (PF4) protein. That binding sets off further inappropriate platelet activation, and that’s why the free platelet count drops (the “thrombocytopenia” part) as new clots form and existing blood clots become larger and more dangerous. You’d be used to someone presenting with thrombocytopenia to be at risk for bleeding disorders, not suffering from too many blood clots, but HIT is coming around from the other direction.

Greinacher’s team showed that patients who developed clotting disorders after vaccination showed the anti-heparin/PF4 antibodies, as in HIT, but it looks like these also bind to PF4 even when it’s not complexed to heparin. It’s possible that this happens (at least partially) via the adenovirus vector binding to platelets, but the details aren’t clear. There apparently is a subset of “classic” HIT cases who have shown this atypical PF4-alone antibody binding, so it’s a phenomenon that can happen without vaccination. The question, though, is whether vaccination is making it more likely, and whether there are particular populations who are more at risk.

Kupferschmidt passed on more information from Germany’s Paul-Ehrlich Institute just this morning. 2.7 million people have received the AZ/Oxford vaccine there, and 31 patients have been identified with cerebral venous thrombosis. Not all of those are HIT or VIPIT, though, because only 19 of the 31 had thrombocytopenia. There have been nine deaths, and as always, key questions are how many cases one would expect in the population that’s been dosed so far. Earlier this month, the figures were 1.7 million vaccinated and 7 cases of CVT, and the institute said that they would have expected about one case as normal background. The EMA, when they came out recommending the vaccine earlier this month, noted that figuring these background rates is not easy. But they found that if there is indeed an imbalance, it’s most noticeable in the younger age cohort and not in the older. The PEI mentioned today that of the 31 cases they have analyzed, 29 of them have been women, which certainly seems significant as well.

The UK experience with this vaccine has apparently shown no overall increase in thrombotic events – if anything, the vaccinated cohort has been slightly lower in that regard than the general population. But if there is an increased risk in people under 50, especially women, that’s actionable, as they say, even if the risk is very small (as it certainly appears to be). Other vaccines need to be available so that the doses can be aimed better. It’s also worth remembering that HIT (and presumably VIPIT, if it does turn out to be a real subset) can be treated with non-heparin anti-clotting drugs and/or by immunoglobin infusions, so the attempts by the EMA and others to raise awareness among physicians of this side effect are well worth it.

This is all happening against a background of increased infection in many European countries, of course. A worry is that some people will decide not to get vaccinated at all after hearing about these side effects, and regions where most of the available vaccine is the AZ/Oxford one may well see people deciding to wait for a different one, if that’s a possibility. If such things noticeably affect the number of people getting vaccinated, they could easily end up killing off more people in general than any of the vascular side effects will. But it’ll be in different groups – if the information we have now holds up, then younger women would be at small-but-greater-than-others risk of side effects, but the pandemic fatalities would probably be more in older men. A grim thing to be totaling up – more on this as we get more information.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: astrazeneca; bloodclots; heparin; johnsonandjohnson; moderna; pfizer; vaccine
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1 posted on 04/14/2021 12:17:05 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Take the jab. Something is going to kill you. Let them jab you


2 posted on 04/14/2021 12:18:37 PM PDT by no-to-illegals ( Liberals, leftists, Rinos, moslems, illegals, lamestream media. All want America to fail and die)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Disclaimer: I don’t necessarily agree with the sentiments of the article but at least the science of the clotting is broken down.


3 posted on 04/14/2021 12:20:51 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: no-to-illegals

Then let it be something natural.


4 posted on 04/14/2021 12:22:57 PM PDT by binreadin
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Thank you for post.


5 posted on 04/14/2021 12:23:17 PM PDT by KC_Lion
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Tucker Carlson asked two questions about the vaccines last night:

1. Are they safe?
2. Are they effective?

He needed to ask a third question:

3. Are they really needed?

Some people are dying from the vaccine.

We understand that.

What we now want to understand is the cost/benefit analysis that went into the decision to vaccinate.

Will we suffer 20 dead in order to save 1,000?

We have the right to know.

Are our government medical people hiding information to benefit the Democrat Party?


6 posted on 04/14/2021 12:28:00 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I think they will - in time ???? - determine there are genetic factors that give certain individuals a susceptibility to a reaction to the Aztra Zeneka vaccine that is similar to what heparin does in some individuals.

When? Probably not soon.

Meanwhile probabilities (%%) should be used as some (not all) of a guide to individual decisions.

On another side of the science front on the Wuhan Virus, I think more and more that some treatments are showing that they may be every bit as good or better than the vaccines at reducing infections and deaths. If they continue to succeed they may make the Wuhan Virus a fully treatable ailment that does not require vaccines.


7 posted on 04/14/2021 12:35:48 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Thought I'd send this around for those who missed it before. It's a short recap of what we've been subjected to by the POWER MAD cunning runt MARXISTS infesting the Dumbocrap party and their RINO buds. Either WE stop it NOW or any kids who somehow survive the Marxist brainwashing in the government schools and remember what freedom looks and feels like will come to hate us for doing so little to stop them! If you agree, share it.


8 posted on 04/14/2021 12:36:13 PM PDT by Dick Bachert (THE DEEP STATE HATES US! IT DETESTS TRUMP!!)
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To: no-to-illegals

I don’t know where to begin with your hysterical hypocrisy.

So let’s start with
1. Your forum name.

Why ‘no’ to illegals? Gee, without wasting time going over your posts/comments, I can only imagine that it’s because IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL (sovereign nation, process/law, 14th Amendment and all that jazz).

So what’s wrong with “let them jab you”???

Gee, maybe because it’s EXPERIMENTAL, UNPROVEN, UNCONSTITUTIONAL (I could go on).

But vaxxers and the fearful sheep will preach, “It’s for the greater good” (public health).

Lemme point out one thing:

That’s awful SOCIALIST of you, favoring medical experiments upon the majority of the population which has higher odds of dying by FALLING than of succumbing to this virus.

I’d suggest a major self-evaluation...but my ability to espouse opinions is matched by another ability...clearly demonstrated by your comment.


9 posted on 04/14/2021 12:47:08 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

MedPage Today, a CE and CME accredited medical news service, provides free continuing education to healthcare professionals in addition to the latest news. Good, informative article about the research that has been done on the adenovirus vector vaccines and interesting comments from “healthcare professionals.”

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/92022

From VIPIT to VITT: Thrombosis and COVID Vaccines
— More data support link between adenovirus vector vaccines, blood clotting, and low platelets


10 posted on 04/14/2021 12:47:52 PM PDT by Cathi
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Oklahoma withdrew the J&J vaccine yesterday. My husband and I were going to take it last week, but he had an exacerbation of copd, so we couldn’t. We didn’t really really want to be vaccinated, anyway, and now we’ve decided to not get vaccinated, at all.


11 posted on 04/14/2021 1:44:04 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing);)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Oklahoma withdrew the J&J vaccine yesterday. My husband and I were going to take it last week, but he had an exacerbation of copd, so we couldn’t. We didn’t really really want to be vaccinated, anyway, and now we’ve decided to not get vaccinated, at all.


12 posted on 04/14/2021 1:45:00 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing);)
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To: no-to-illegals

the following explanation of the blood clots from J&J and astrazeneca vaccines from a doc at a discussion on medscape.com:

“What is common to the two COVID-19 vaccines recently observed to be associated with thrombotic thrombocytopenia (TT) are that they both use adenovirus as vectors-—AstraZeneka’s ChAd and J&J’s Ad26. Actually, adenovirus vectors have been long recognized to cause TT in both animal studies as well as in humans. Some strains of adenovirus (e.g., Ad5) can bind and activate platelets, which are then sequestered in the liver ( Stone et al, J Virology, 2007). One mechanism suggested for the activation of platelets is the role of von Willebrand factor and P-selectin in the platelet-leukocyte-endothelial interaction (Othman et al. Blood, 2006). It is not clear why such previous observations have not been noted earlier by the FDA and other agencies in their decision to give EUA for these vaccines.”

It’s called:

Virus induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Virus+induced+thrombotic+thrombocytopenia


13 posted on 04/14/2021 2:24:03 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

the following explanation of the blood clots from J&J and astrazeneca vaccines from a doc at a discussion on medscape.com:

“What is common to the two COVID-19 vaccines recently observed to be associated with thrombotic thrombocytopenia (TT) are that they both use adenovirus as vectors-—AstraZeneka’s ChAd and J&J’s Ad26. Actually, adenovirus vectors have been long recognized to cause TT in both animal studies as well as in humans. Some strains of adenovirus (e.g., Ad5) can bind and activate platelets, which are then sequestered in the liver ( Stone et al, J Virology, 2007). One mechanism suggested for the activation of platelets is the role of von Willebrand factor and P-selectin in the platelet-leukocyte-endothelial interaction (Othman et al. Blood, 2006). It is not clear why such previous observations have not been noted earlier by the FDA and other agencies in their decision to give EUA for these vaccines.”

It’s called:

Virus induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Virus+induced+thrombotic+thrombocytopenia


14 posted on 04/14/2021 2:25:29 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Flaming Conservative

I would be more likely to consider the J&J vaccine than whatever the mRNA stuff is.

not that any of them are high on my priority list


15 posted on 04/14/2021 2:27:39 PM PDT by algore
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I had a pulmonary embolism last year and deep vein thrombosis. The last thing I need is more blood clot risk in my life.


16 posted on 04/14/2021 2:41:07 PM PDT by bragginright
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To: Dick Bachert

Concur.


17 posted on 04/14/2021 3:11:39 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Because women of childbearing age seem to be hardest hit the question is we’re they on birth control pills?


18 posted on 04/14/2021 3:58:38 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: algore

The J&J is causing blood clots, too.


19 posted on 04/14/2021 9:11:36 PM PDT by Flaming Conservative ((Pray without ceasing);)
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To: logi_cal869

I’m not the person having set up this experiment. Your logic does not compute.


20 posted on 04/15/2021 6:06:48 AM PDT by no-to-illegals ( Liberals, leftists, Rinos, moslems, illegals, lamestream media. All want America to fail and die)
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