Links between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and severe blood clotting, increased virus cases and hospitalizations, and prevalence of a highly contagious variant are the latest problems and fallout from the coronavirus and experimental injections.
The European Medicines Agency has said it found a possible link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and rare blood clots. Specifically, the agency analyzed 62 cases of blood clotting in the sinuses that drain blood from the brain, and 24 cases of clotting in the abdomen in people who had received the shot as of March 22, and 18 of those cases were fatal, according to a CNN report.
In the United Kingdom, there were reports of 79 serious blood clots alongside low blood platelet counts, and 19 of those people died as of March 31, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the network continued.
“If they’re only happening in a very, very small minority of cases, it is very possible that the FDA or the WHO or the CDC may still approve these things, knowing that they can cause a horrible reaction of even death sometimes,” said Dr. Abdullah Hassan Pratt, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Chicago. There are always side effects and no way to prevent it, especially when using a synthetic agent whether it’s medication, drugs or vaccines, he said.
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The side effects may be minor or sometimes very widespread and dangerous, but before people issue a black-box warning for a specific side effect, regulators must see a significant amount, Dr. Pratt told The Final Call.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety recently said it’s plausible that there’s a causal link between the vaccine and the occurrence of blood clots with low platelets, but it is not confirmed and must be investigated.
“When you have a product that is given/sold to large numbers of people, it is difficult to come to conclusions. It takes investigation to find causes to problems,” stated Dr. Akili Graham Muhammad, a general family physician who practices in Houston.
“The difficulty that I see is even if there is a pattern or a trend that should be investigated seriously, many of these corporations ignore the obvious because of the threat to the profit. In that case, the people become irrelevant,” Dr. Graham Muhammad told The Final Call.
People under 30 with no underlying conditions should be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine where available, stated Professor Wei Shen Lim, Covid-19 chair for the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, in a press statement.
The committee indicated it will continue to gather and review for the data, and that potential adverse events following immunization do not necessarily mean they are linked to vaccination itself, but they must be investigated to ensure that any safety concerns are addressed quickly.
Australia recently became the latest country to restrict use of the AstraZeneca vaccine by recommending that it not be given to people under age 50, according to the Associated Press.
Spain has limited its use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to the elderly, along with Germany and France. Belgium has imposed a four-week ban on the company’s vaccine for people under 56, and plans to reassess use, AP continued.
Meanwhile, variant coronavirus cases have reached all 50 states—11,000 of them being the UK variant known as B.1.1.7. It is highly contagious and the most common lineage circulating in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control.
Florida had the most—3,494 cases of the UK variant, followed by Michigan with 2,262, Minnesota with 1,573, and Georgia with 1,022.
Nearly 20,000 cases of the UK variant have been reported in the United States as late March. The numbers are based on a sampling of SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens and do not represent the total number of cases that may be circulating in the United States, according to the CDC.
“There is still reason for us to be concerned with rising case counts, rising variants reported, and increasing hospitalizations—and there is so much reason for so much hope,” stated Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director.
The CDC’s most recent data show that the seven-day average of new cases was a little more than 63,000 cases per day—up about 2.3 percent from the prior seven-day average. Hospital admissions continued to increase, with the most recent seven-day average being about 5,000 admissions per day—up about 2.7 percent from the prior seven-day average, said Dr. Walensky during a White House press briefing.
“We hope we didn’t see that, because in the context of it (Covid-19) being out for a year, and the supposed impact that the vaccine may have had, as well as social distancing, any resurgence would likely be represented in the new strain,” said Dr. Pratt.
Some scientists are saying it’s more infective, he continued. “It also infects the young much more often, and for some reason, some of the elders aren’t hit as hard,” noted Dr. Pratt.
“We were worried about what that may mean for the Black community, because we are already in a vulnerable state, just due to our overall state of health care and the lack of resources dedicated to us, as well as our geographic conditions, how we live upon one another, and our slow reaction time to different pandemics or national disasters and health care, as one may have it,” Dr. Pratt continued.
He’s most concerned with the death rate and how this variant impacts the overall health system. Dr. Pratt also urged people to do the best they can to prepare because the ultimate goal is to save life.
“We have to be more disciplined in terms of our social distancing … mask wearing, especially for those of us, especially Believers, who are conscientiously objecting to taking the vaccine, per the instructions of our beloved Minister (Louis Farrakhan),” he stated.
The Nation of Islam minister has warned Black and Indigenous people against taking the experimental Covid-19 vaccines based on the track record of treacherous medical misdeeds by the U.S. government and big pharma against the darker people of the planet.
The Muslim leader has called for Black virologists, epidemiologists, and medical professionals to research alternative therapies and for the U.S. to lift the embargo of Cuba. The island nation has made tremendous strides in the development of Covid-19 treatments and its vaccines.
Some experts fear the rising counts in cases and hospitalizations are prelude to a fourth deadly wave of infections. Michigan had 7,819 new cases and 73 deaths on April 8, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
With 13 of the 20 most afflicted towns there including Jackson, Detroit and Flint, some wonder if Michigan’s Covid-19 spike could set off a national fourth wave, according to Slate News.
Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, and former director of the Detroit Health Department, said he wants to be wrong about Michigan being a warning to the rest of the country. There is a theoretical possibility things could get worse, Dr. El-Sayed told Mary Harris during the April 7 podcast “What Next.”
During a press conference on April 9, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer called the state’s numbers alarming. She urged high schools and youth sports to voluntarily suspend in-person activities for the next two weeks. She also asked high schools to use remote instruction for two weeks.
“They will not be able to control this pandemic,” said Dr. Graham Muhammad
International mandatory vaccine passports for air travel and other services appears to be part of the strategy. Some states have banned vaccine passports, even though domestically, the federal government has said it is not considering them.
Governors of Texas, Florida, Idaho, and Utah have banned government-mandated vaccine passports to travel or access other services. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order on April 6, stating, “Texans shouldn’t be required to show proof of vaccination & reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives.”
Idaho Governor Brad Little followed suit on April 7, prohibiting any department, agency, board commission, or other executive entity or official of the state to require proof of a Covid-19 vaccine to access state services or facilities. Utah passed legislation blocking its government from mandating Covid-19 vaccines last month, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Consideration of mandatory vaccine passports become more real as more states open up or loosen restrictions to an American public eager to get out and get “back to normal.”
Iowa, Florida, Wyoming, South Dakota and Texas were the top five states with the least coronavirus restrictions, according to the online finance site WalletHub.
“The political arena is focused on economics while ‘health care’ is petrified and fatigued. There is still a percentage of health care workers who are not interested in taking the vaccine. I’m watching my colleagues look at political ‘leaders’ with vitriol, because they are extremely worn out and existing daily in total fear of being infected and winding up like their patients. Even those who are vaccinated are still petrified,” stated Dr. Graham Muhammad.
“My suggestion to all who continue to be afraid of the climate is to please work on your health,” he added.
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