Drugs giant AstraZeneca is facing a historic Supreme Court battle over allegations that some doses of its Covid-19 vaccine were “defective” and that claims about its efficacy were “vastly exaggerated”.
Two testing cases are expected in court after recipients developed a rare condition following the jab’s rollout in 2021.
The vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, has been praised for its role in Britain’s recovery from Covid, with more than 150 million doses administered so far. Research shows that approximately six million lives have been saved by the injection.
But it caused blood clots in a very small number of people, some of which led to fatal complications. The condition is known as vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT).
IT engineer Jamie Scott is now filing a lawsuit after he suffered a brain hemorrhage the day after his first AstraZeneca shot, causing permanent brain damage.
The vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, has been praised for its role in the UK’s fight against Covid, with more than 150 million doses administered to date.
IT engineer Jamie Scott suffered a brain haemorrhage the day after his first AstraZeneca jab, leaving him with permanent brain damage, and his wife Kate told The Mail on Sunday how the father-of-two, from Warwickshire, was left partially blind and struggles with daily tasks
His wife Kate told The Mail on Sunday last year how the father-of-two, from Warwickshire, was left partially blind and struggling with daily tasks – requiring physiotherapy to regain movement.
Charity worker Mrs Scott said: ‘It’s a miracle Jamie is still with us. I called the hospital three times to say goodbye. The doctors have said he may never work again.”
Currently, families are entitled to a £120,000 payout if a loved one dies or becomes seriously disabled as a result of a government-recommended jab. But experts say the system is outdated, prompting legal action.
Mrs Scott added: ‘Even if we receive the £120,000 payment it won’t be enough to keep us going forever. And it’s insulting, considering what Jamie has been through.”
A second claim is reportedly being made by the widower and two children of 35-year-old Alpa Tailor, who died after the shot.
If successful, it could pave the way for similar claims, believed to be around £1 million each.
Mr Scott’s lawyers told the Daily Telegraph they will claim he suffered ‘personal injury’, claiming the jab was ‘defective’ and the vaccine’s efficacy was misleading.
AstraZeneca said: ‘The body of evidence from clinical trials and real-world data consistently shows that the vaccine has an acceptable safety profile and regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects. -Effects.’
Millions of Britons rolled up their sleeves as they were urged to get the vaccine, hoping to protect themselves, vulnerable loved ones and society as a whole from the virus as it swept the country.
Compared to competing vaccines that used breakthrough mRNA technology, AstraZeneca’s more traditional vaccine was cheaper and easier to store.
It uses a weakened version of an adenovirus, a pathogen that causes the common cold in chimpanzees. This has been genetically modified so that it cannot make people sick.
It contains genetic material from SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes Covid. This teaches the body’s immune system how to fight the real virus.
Drugs giant AstraZeneca faces a historic Supreme Court battle over allegations that some doses of its Covid-19 vaccine were ‘defective’
The AstraZeneca vaccine is a genetically engineered cold virus that used to infect chimpanzees. It has been modified to make it weak so it doesn’t cause disease in humans, and it is packed with the gene for the coronavirus spike protein, which Covid-19 uses to enter human cells.
In a very small number of cases – around one in 100,000 in Britain – the vaccine can cause a chain reaction that causes the body to mistake its own platelets for virus fragments.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine, given in two doses 12 weeks apart, has been hailed as a game-changer during the pandemic.
Data suggested two doses of the AstraZeneca jab provided around 70 per cent protection against getting sick, meaning developing symptoms of Covid, rather than being hospitalized from it.
Other studies calculated that a single dose reduced the risk of hospitalization by as much as 94 percent.
Officials in Britain approved it for public use on December 30, 2020, just weeks after the data was published.
The first doses were given on January 4, 2021, less than a month after the Pfizer vaccine. When the AstraZeneca jab was approved, then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was a “moment to celebrate British innovation”.
But the historic launch was marred after reports of a rare but dangerous side effect causing potentially fatal blood clots.
Campaigners have demanded immediate changes to the ‘cruel’ financial support program for Britons injured or deprived by Covid vaccines such as AstraZeneca’s.
Common side effects, which health bosses say could affect more than 10 per cent of recipients, include fatigue, ‘flu-like’ symptoms and pain in the arms or legs. Stomach pain, rash and excessive sweating were rare and affected around one in every hundred people who were vaccinated
Rare (about one in 1,000) problems include drooping of the face to one side. Very rare side effects (one in 10,000) can cause paralysis
The studies were not large enough to detect vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), which can cause blood clots and has been linked to dozens of deaths and more injuries.
By opening the door for millions more Britons to get the jab, as Britain did during the first few months of 2021, VITT was effectively outpaced. Officials discovered a small but significant trend that led them to raise the alarm in the first week of April 2020.
The use of the vaccine was then limited to older age groups and the shot is now no longer used in booster campaigns.
Government estimates suggest that one in 10,000 people could develop blood clots as a result of the AstraZeneca jab.
Specific to VITT, the risk is thought to be greatest for people under 50, with one in 50,000 affected. Officials think the risk among people over 50 is about one in 100,000.
Deaths from VITT were unexpected, but this does not necessarily mean AstraZeneca’s jab was defective.
Millions of Britons received the life-saving jab without any complications.