"We do see side effects but protection from vaccines is extremely higher": Medical expert

NEW DELHI: Medical expert Dr MV Padma Srivastava said that there are rare cases of side effects from vaccines adding that the occurring percentage of the side effects is "very low."

Dr MV Padma Srivastava is currently a Chairperson of Neurology at Paras Hospitals, Gurugram and a Former HOD, of the Department of Neurology, AIIMS who worked proactively during the time of Covid19.

"We do see but the percentage is small, compared to the large percentage they actually help in preventing the most major illness," she said.

The UK media reports, AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company said that Covid vaccine Covishield and Vaxzevria "can, in very rare cases, cause Thromboses Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS)."

Mentioning the report, Dr Padma said, "I've also read the report which said that, really it's happening, but I must say this when you are looking at vaccines are being given to protect a particular issue. Whenever there are vaccines that are rolled out for protection against a major health problem there will always be a spinoff of certain consequences. So in this case, I believe that in rare situations, the vaccines have caused this TTS."

"Vaccines have been there with us ever since we were born and they are protecting some extremely bad viral infections. So some spin-offs like viruses cause fevers. We do see that but the percentage is so small, compared to the large percentage they actually help in preventing the most major illness," she explained about the vaccine.

She further cited the study done by ICMR related to Covid-19 vaccines, "In Covid, vaccines, these issues are emanating. I think it's a work in progress. It is a science that we are understanding better. We also had a study from ICMR, which actually looked into the vaccine rollout in our country. And these issues, the heart attacks and strokes were not largely related to the vaccine rollout, this is the ICMR study, which also has been in the public domain."

On Covid-19 infection leading to blood clots she said "Surely, that's a very pertinent issue. If not now, but I must say, seems like a distant past but it was just one and a half a couple of years ago, we were hotly debating all this. And yes, Covid itself is a hugely thermogenic situation and there is enough pathogenesis and pathophysiology to back this, that Covid infection per se implies its effect on the vessel wall, the rheology or the haematological situations and a whole host of immune-mediated inflammatory mechanisms, which cause clots in the blood vessels. So Covid itself turned out to be an issue in both arterial clots and venous clots."

Dr Sanjay K Rai, Professor of Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS Delhi said, "Of any drugs, there are side effects of different types. In some cloting mechanisms gets disturbed in some Platelets get decreased. In some cases, cloting happens and in some, it does not. They are very rare side effects. Due to these side effects, it was banned for less than 50 years people."

When asked whether there is any risk he said that it is been two years that people have taken the vaccine so the "probability of any risk is less".

TTS is Thromboses Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, which is one of those situations where there can be clots formed in the blood vessels.

According to several UK media reports, AstraZeneca has made the admission in court documents in connection with a case that alleges that the vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases.

The Serum Institute of India produced a Covid-19 vaccine named Covishield but not using mRNA platform. It has been prepared using the viral vector platform. In the vaccine, a chimpanzee adenovirus - ChAdOx1 - has been modified to enable it to carry the Covid-19 spike protein into the cells of humans. This cold virus is basically incapable of infecting the receiver, but can very well teach the immune system to prepare a mechanism against such viruses.

Amid reports about clots in blood vessels in the UK media, the Serum Institute of India did not respond to the query.

Notably in 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in its report that TTS emerged as a new adverse event following immunisation in individuals vaccinated with Covid-19 non-replicant adenovirus vector-based vaccines.