Published: April 15, 2021
Cited by: Urdu Point
MOSCOW, April 15 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – Medical regulators across the globe are rushing to study the blood clot disorders that have been reported in a small proportion of people who have received COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, and experts told Sputnik that more needs to be done to identify if there is a causal link between the adverse clotting events and the two vaccines.
Both the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are based on a technology known as a “viral vector.” They use an adenovirus, an inactivated form of a virus that can cause the common cold, to transfer information to human cells that leads to the creation of coronavirus proteins that subsequently offer the individual protection against COVID-19.
Viral vector vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V and the Canadian-Swedish CanSino vaccine, are cheaper to produce and easier to store than vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna that operate on mRNA, or messenger RNA, technology, which helps cells assemble proteins without the need for a virus to be injected.
As a result, the AstraZeneca vaccine forms a core part of the Gavi and World Health Organization (WHO)-led COVAX vaccine distribution initiative.
Speakers
George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
“There’s almost no risk tolerance for vaccinations, except maybe the Ebola virus vaccine, but for a disease like this, there’s almost no tolerance for risk,” the UCSF professor said.
Cheryl Walter, a lecturer in microbiology at the University of Hull.
“One thing that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have in common with these approaches that use adenoviruses, is that they’re delivering the same genetic information in the same format. So, it’s not the message that might be causing these complications, it is most likely the adenovirus,” Walter said.
Alice Pelton, the founder of the world’s first review platform for contraception, The Lowdown.
“Not only is there a small increased risk of blood clots, but what about the other non-life threatening but life-impacting side effects millions of women experience on hormonal contraceptives? … It’s simply not OK that pharmaceutical companies don’t have the time or money to improve a drug like ‘the pill’ that’s been around for over 60 years and is used by over 150 million women worldwide,” Pelton said.
Jonathan Rowson 