Covishield can Cause Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS)

So, we are again talking about covid-19. This time, it’s not about the virus, but the vaccine. Yes, the “Covishield.”

It was the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, known as Covishield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe. The viral vector vaccine was developed with the use of modified chimpanzee adenovirus ChAdOx1. 

Did you know it is made from a harmless cold virus from chimpanzees and it is known as adenovirus? 

AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine causes a rare side effect – Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome.

What is it?

Thrombosis Thrombocytopenia Syndrome is a blood clot disorder. It can leave a serious effect that happens as a part of Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (VITTP). 

When people were getting a dose of Covishield, doctors were injecting it in the arms in the deltoid muscles. 

However, sometimes instead of getting into the muscles, it enters the bloodstream. 

Once it enters the bloodstream, the adenovirus in the vaccine works as a magnet that gets attracted to a protein in the blood known as platelet factor 4 (PF4). 

Normally, if we talk about PF4, it helps with blood clotting but sometimes the immune system considers it as a foreigner and produces antibodies to attack. 

Those antibodies then stick together with PF4, leading to the formation of blood clots. These clots are linked with the vaccine. But, these can have a serious effect on the brain and heart. 

So, do Covishield vaccine takers need to worry about it?

No. You may not have heard about the cases because blood clotting has happened to very few people. 

An essential thing to note is that vaccinated people have a reduced risk of dying from Covid. After recovering from the Covid, they were not experiencing any complications like heart attacks or strokes. 

Although there are very few side effects for the vaccines, their benefits are always a winner. The vaccine has saved hundreds and thousands of people from dying. 

For example, in the US, 232,000-318,000 people died from Covid. The reason is they refused to take the vaccine because of the fear of vaccination.