Further to the UK government’s vaccines advisory body’s recommendation that the AstraZeneca vaccine should only be used in people over 30, it has emerged that most of the reported cases of blood clots after the AstraZeneca jab also tested positive for an antibody seen in patients who have an adverse reaction to heparin, an anticoagulant (blood thinner).
PA reports:
Beverley Hunt, professor of thrombosis and haemostasis at King’s College London, said tests were carried out to find the antibody to a molecule called platelet factor 4.
Speaking at a briefing hosted by the Science Media Centre (SMC) on Wednesday, she said: “We have a special test that we can do and we have always done in the past in patients who’ve had a very odd reaction to getting heparin.
“We were surprised to find, and it was first found in Germany, that these patients have this positive test for antiplatelet factor 4 antibody.
“And in many ways they behave like this very rare syndrome of heparin-induced thrombosis.”
France logs new record number of intensive care Covid patients since beginning of the year
The French health ministry reported on Wednesday that the number of people in intensive care units with Covid-19 increased by 103 to a new 2021 record of 5,729 people.
Week-on-week, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care rose by 13.4%, the biggest week-on-week increase since 13 November, Reuters reports.
A British medical expert has said there is not enough evidence to rule out that blood clotting side effects seen with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine could not also be seen with other types of vaccines.
Professor Anthony Harnden, deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a similar vaccine type to the AstraZeneca jab is the Janssen vaccine, which the UK has placed orders for.
Speaking at a briefing hosted by the Science Media Centre (SMC) on Wednesday, Harnden said reports of blood clots could be “AstraZeneca-related”, adding:
It could be related to the specific vaccine but could be related to the vaccine platform.
And if it is, then the same safety signals will arise with the Janssen vaccine, and we know that there’s been one case within the clinical trial of the Janssen vaccine.
But we’re not seeing this with the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, that’s the Pfizer or Moderna at the moment.
The global human rights situation has deteriorated significantly since the pandemic began, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
The crisis was abused by numerous states to further restrict the rule of law and freedom of expression, the organisation said in its annual report.
It also levelled criticism against rich countries over their lack of solidarity during the pandemic.
In many regions the pandemic has increased inequality, discrimination and oppression, the organisation said.
Amnesty General Secretary Agnès Callamard wrote in the report’s foreword that the Covid-19 crisis has “increased mediocrity and mendacity, egoism and deceit among those in power in the world.”
Amnesty Germany boss Markus Beeko said it was significant that, statistically speaking, in 2020 a person working in the healthcare sector with Covid-19 died every 30 minutes.
Further, in 42 of the 149 countries examined, government agencies harassed and intimidated health workers in connection with the pandemic, he added.
A joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) study into Covid-19 has provided no credible answers about how the pandemic began, and more rigorous investigations are required - with or without Beijing’s involvement, a group of international scientists and researchers said on Wednesday.
Reuters reports:
The joint study, released last week, said the likeliest transmission route for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, involved bats and other wildlife in China and southeast Asia. It all but ruled out the possibility it had leaked from a laboratory.
In an open letter, 24 scientists and researchers from Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan said the study was tainted by politics.
“Their starting point was, let’s have as much compromise as is required to get some minimal cooperation from China,” said Jamie Metzl, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, who drafted the letter.
The letter said the study’s conclusions were based on unpublished Chinese research, while critical records and biological samples “remain inaccessible”.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus said last week China had withheld data.
Liang Wannian, China’s senior Covid-19 expert, denied this and appeared to rule out any further joint investigations in China, saying the focus should shift to other countries.
Metzl said the world might have to “revert to Plan B” and conduct an investigation “in the most systematic way possible” without China’s involvement.
China has rejected allegations that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a research laboratory in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 was first identified.
The joint China-WHO study said the lab leak was “extremely unlikely”, saying there was “no record” that any laboratory had kept SARS-CoV-2-related viruses. Tedros said more research was required to “reach more robust conclusions”.
Brazil records first case of South African virus variant
Brazil has recorded its first confirmed case of the highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, a fresh danger for a country already ravaged by the world’s highest daily death toll amid a surge in infections fuelled by a widespread local variant.
Reuters reports:
Last week, scientists at the Butantan biomedical institute said the case, identified in a woman in Sao Paulo state, might be a new local variant. Further analysis confirmed it as the first known local case of the variant widely circulating in South Africa and elsewhere.
Scientists fear a showdown between the South African variant and the already rampant Brazilian variant, known as P.1, both of which are more contagious and possibly more deadly than the original version of the coronavirus and have led to accelerated Covid-19 surges.
“It could be a huge duel,” said Maria Carolina Sabbaga, one of Butantan’s coordinators for studying new variants. “I think P.1 has already taken over. I’m not sure if the South African will overtake P.1, let’s see.”
The South African variant in studies appears to lessen protection from current vaccines.
Brazil is in the midst of a brutal Covid-19 wave, setting records for deaths on a weekly basis. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported a single-day record of 4,195 deaths.
The Biden administration is in extended discussions with US airlines and other travel industry groups to provide technical guidance for vaccine passports that could be used to ramp up international air travel safely, industry officials said.
Reuters reports:
The administration has repeatedly made clear it will not require any businesses or Americans to use a digital Covid-19 health credential, however. It will also publish guidelines for the public.
The key question, airline and travel industry officials say, is whether the US government will set standards or guidelines to assure foreign governments that data in US traveller digital passports is accurate. There are thousands of different US entities giving Covid-19 vaccines, including drugstores, hospitals and mass vaccination sites.
Airline officials say privately that even if the United States does not mandate a Covid-19 digital record, other countries may require it or require all air passengers to be vaccinated.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the administration would provide guidance “that provides important answers to questions that Americans have, in particular around concerns about privacy, security, or discrimination, soon.”
On March 22, major US airlines and other travel groups urged the White House to “develop uniform Federal principles for Covi-19 health credentials” that would ensure they can “securely validate both test results and vaccination history, protect personal data, comply with applicable privacy laws, and operate across local, state and international jurisdictions.”
The World Health Organization’s advisory vaccine safety panel said on Wednesday a causal link between the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and rare cases of blood clots with low platelets is “considered plausible but is not confirmed”.
The independent experts, in a statement issued after a review of the latest global data, said that specialised studies were needed to fully understand the potential relationship between vaccination and possible risk factors.
“It is important to note that whilst concerning, the events under assessment are very rare, with low numbers reported among the almost 200 million individuals who have received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine around the world,” the panel said.
It added that it would meet against next week to review additional data.
In Germany, the federal and state health ministers decided previously, because of a small cluster of brain thrombosis cases that mainly occurred in young women, to only give the jab to people aged 60 and over.
For younger people, vaccination with the jab is only possible at their own risk after they have been informed about possible side effects.
In France, the vaccine is only given to people over the age of 55.
India reported a record 115,736 new infections on Wednesday, a 13-fold increase in just over two months, raising pressure on the government to expand its vaccination campaign.
Reuters reports:
Some states, including hardest-hit Maharashtra and Odisha, have complained of a scarcity of vaccines during a second wave that has forced some centres to turn away people.
Only those aged over 45 are now being immunised in India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, which started its campaign with health and other frontline workers in mid-January.
“Vaccination centres have to close early due to a shortage of supplies,” Maharashtra’s health minister, Rajesh Tope, told reporters.
Stocks would run out in three days after the daily injection of over 450,000 doses, he said.
Odisha said it had closed nearly half of its immunisation sites due to the shortfall, with supplies left only for two more days.
India’s health minister said the complaints, mostly from states not ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, were attempts to cover up their failures and spread panic.
“Vaccine supplies are being monitored on a real-time basis, and state governments are being apprised regularly about it,” Harsh Vardhan said in a statement. “Allegations of vaccine shortage are utterly baseless.”
Maharashtra has for weeks accounted for over half India’s daily new cases, which on Monday passed 100,000 for the first time. The government blames the resurgence mainly on crowding and a reluctance to wear masks as shops and offices reopen.
As we reported previously, health ministers fom the EU’s 27 member states will discuss the recommendations of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) regarding the rare risk of blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine this evening.
“We expect this announcement will have a direct and immediate impact not only on our national vaccination plans, but also in our citizens’ trust in vaccines against Covid-19,” a letter seen by Reuters states.
