The AstraZeneca vaccine and the University of Oxford continue to raise questions about its safety due to its possible link to death and serious blood clots. France is now investigating the “incomprehensible” death of a 24-year-old student who had been vaccinated with this drug on March 8, as reported West France. The young man was in his sixth year of medicine at CHU.
Not hearing from him, Anthony R.’s family and friends began to worry. “My brother’s friends contacted me the next day to express their concern that I had not opened a message in Messenger. In general, respond quickly”, Kevin, the victim’s older brother, explains in the same medium. For this reason, the firefighters traveled to their home in Nantes and They found his lifeless body on Thursday, March 1810 days after receiving a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The home was locked from the inside.
I had 1.7 liters of blood in my stomach
A preliminary report attributes this death to “internal bleeding from thrombosis,” although further analysis is underway. “The doctors told us that Anthony had 1.7 liters of blood in the stomach. The only consolation is that he died in his sleep. We hold on to that: at least he did not suffer”Says Kevin, who says that the day before he had spoken with Anthony on the phone and he told him that he had a stomach ache and that he was planning to go to the doctor. “He did not have time,” he laments.
Likewise, Kevin assures that the deceased took great care of himself: “He was careful with what he ate, did sports and had no medical history, no illness, nothing. He was in perfect health ”. Therefore, it is inevitable for the family to blame the vaccine: “My firm conviction is that the vaccine triggered the thrombosis that caused his death. I don’t care what they tell me I challenge you to find someone who has thrombosis at 24 years old”
For its part, Monday the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) reported on Monday in its update on vaccine surveillance that “at this stage, there is nothing to conclude on the role of the vaccine ”. The Nantes public prosecutor’s office has already opened a judicial investigation to clarify what happened.
The EMA defends the safety and efficacy of the drug
After analyzing the cases of thrombosis that occurred in people who had been administered the drug, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded last week that AstraZeneca’s vaccine is “safe” and “effective”, as stated by its director, Emer Cooke. Likewise, he assured that “the benefits far outweigh the risks “.
The Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), an EMA body, ruled out a link between vaccination with AstraZeneca, although the president of the committee, Sabine Strauss, confessed that they are investigating the possible relationship with two rare forms of blood clots: “The vaccine has not been shown to increase thrombi. But uncertainties remain, we have seen some rare cases of intravascular coagulation, but we have not concluded with certainty that these cases are related to the vaccine: we will continue the surveillance. Given the COVID-19 is also a cause of thrombosis, it can be said that the vaccine reduces these risks ”.
Furthermore, a recent American study increased the 79% vaccine efficacy Y also ruled out a relationship with cases of thrombosis: “The vaccine was well tolerated and the independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) did not identify security issues. The DSMB conducted a specific review of thrombotic events as well as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) with the help of an independent neurologist, and did not find an increased risk of thrombosis or events characterized by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants who received at least one dose of the vaccine “
