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AstraZeneca admits its Covid-19 jab could cause a rare side effect

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Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has for the first time admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine could cause a rare side effect that could lead to blood clots and death, according to court documents.
The company is fighting a class action lawsuit alleging that its inoculation, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, can result in death and serious injury.

The legal battle was initiated by Jamie Scott, a father of two, who suffered a blood clot that left him with brain damage after he was inoculated in April 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. He is seeking compensation over claims that the AstraZeneca vaccine is “defective” and less safe than expected, an allegation the company denies.

In May 2023, AstraZeneca also insisted that “we do not accept that TTS [Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome] is caused by the vaccine at a generic level,” as quoted by The Daily Telegraph.

TTS is a rare condition, in which a person has blood clots, which could reduce the blood flow, combined with a low platelet count, which could prompt difficulties in stopping the bleeding. TTS symptoms include severe headaches and abdominal pain.

Despite previous denials, AstraZeneca said in court documents, which were submitted to the UK High Court in February but received media attention only recently, that “it is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known.”

“Further, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine),” the company added, as quoted by the Telegraph.

At the same time, AstraZeneca insists the available data shows the drug has “an acceptable safety profile,” and that “regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.”

Dozens of Western countries suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the spring of 2021 over fears it may have caused some patients to develop blood clots.  At the time, the head of the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said that there was an evident link between AZ vaccine intake and blood clots in the brain, but maintained that the benefits still outweighed the risks.

According to World Health Organization data, the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has an efficacy of 72%. As of April 2021, over 17 million people had received the jab in the EU and the UK, with just under 40 cases of thrombosis, according to the company.

(Agencies)

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Slovakia backs plan to shoot 350 bears after man killed in attack

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The Slovak cabinet has approved a plan to shoot around a quarter of the country’s brown bears, after a man was mauled to death while walking in a forest in Central Slovakia.

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s populist-nationalist government announced after a cabinet meeting that 350 out of an estimated population of 1,300 brown bears would be culled, citing the danger to humans after a spate of attacks.

“We can’t live in a country where people are afraid to go into the woods,” the prime minister told reporters afterwards.

A special state of emergency allowing bears to be shot has now been widened to 55 of Slovakia’s 79 districts, an area that now covers most of the country.

The government in Bratislava has already loosened legal protections allowing bears to be killed if they stray too close to human habitation. Some 93 had been shot by the end of 2024.

The plans to shoot even more were condemned by conservationists, who said the decision was in violation of international obligations and could be illegal.

“It’s absurd,” said Michal Wiezek, an ecologist and MEP for opposition party Progressive Slovakia.

“The Environment Ministry failed desperately to limit the number of bear attacks by the unprecedented culling of this protected species,” he told the BBC.

“To cover up their failure, the government has decided to cull even more bears,” he continued.

Wiezek argued that thousands of encounters a year passed without incident, and he hoped the European Commission would intervene.

Slovak police confirmed on Wednesday that a man found dead in forest near the town of Detva in Central Slovakia on Sunday night was killed by a bear. His wounds were consistent with an attack.

The 59-year-old man had been reported missing on Saturday after failing to return from a walk in the woods.

He was found with what authorities described as “devastating injuries to the head”. Evidence of a bear’s den was found nearby, a local NGO told Slovak newspaper Novy Cas.

Bears have become a political issue in Slovakia after a rising number of encounters, including fatal attacks.

In March 2024, a 31-year-old Belarusian woman fell into a ravine and died while being chased by a bear in northern Slovakia.

Several weeks later a large brown bear was captured on video running through the centre of the nearby town of Liptovsky Mikolas in broad daylight, bounding past cars and lunging at people on the pavement.

The authorities later claimed to have hunted down and killed the animal, although conservationists said later there was clear evidence they had shot a different bear.

Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said on Wednesday there were more than 1,300 bears in Slovakia, and that 800 was a “sufficient number”, as the population was growing.

However, experts say the population remains more or less stable at around 1,270 animals.

Bears are common across the Carpathian mountain range, which stretches in an arc from Romania through western Ukraine and on to Slovakia and Poland.

(BBC News)

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US Senator breaks record for longest Senate speech

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US Senator Cory Booker has broken the record for the longest speech ever delivered in the Senate.

The New Jersey Democrat’s marathon address, a symbolic protest against President Donald Trump, in which he warned of a “grave and urgent” moment in American history, ended after for 25 hours and four minutes.

Although it was not a filibuster – a speech designed to obstruct passage of a bill – it held up legislative business in the Republican-controlled Senate. The rules for such speeches require a speaker to remain standing and forgo bathroom breaks.

The previous record was held by Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act in 1957.

Booker said he would speak for as long as he was physically able as he began his address at around 19:00 local time on Monday evening. He concluded at 20:06 on Tuesday.

The 55-year-old, who is the fourth-ranking Democrat in the chamber, filled some of the time reading letters from constituents, who said they had been harmed by President Trump’s policies.

The former presidential candidate also ran out the clock by discussing sports, reciting poetry and taking questions from colleagues.

Booker, who is African-American, spoke of his roots as the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners.

“I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful,” he said, referring to segregationist Thurmond’s record-setting address 68 years ago.

As he reached the milestone, Booker said he was going to “deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling”.

He was able to give his jaw much-needed respite during the speech by taking questions from colleagues, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

The Democratic Party, currently out of power in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, rallied behind Booker’s symbolic act of protest.

Booker’s speech is also the longest in the Senate since a 21-hour filibuster in 2013 by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, against Obamacare.

Cruz told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that a filibuster is a challenging physical feat.

For his own protest, he wore comfortable shoes and tried to drink as little water as possible – an approach he described as “nothing in, nothing out”.

(BBC News)

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Myanmar announces week of national mourning

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Myanmar has announced a week of national mourning as the death toll has passed 2,000 and hopes of finding quake survivors continue to fade.

National flags will fly at half-mast until April 06 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages” from Friday’s massive quake, the ruling junta has said in a statement.

Rescue teams from around the world are in Myanmar after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck last Friday.

The National Unity Government – currently in exile – has announced a “two-week pause in offensive military operations” in areas hit by the quake
In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll in Bangkok has risen to 18, with 76 workers missing at a collapsed high-rise under construction.

Search and rescue efforts are underway.

(Agencies)

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