Dzulkefly wants answers from AstraZeneca on vaccine side effect
UK’s The Telegraph reported last week that AstraZeneca has admitted in court documents that its Covid-19 vaccine can lead to blood clots and a low blood platelet count.
PETALING JAYA: The health ministry will seek an explanation from British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca after it recently admitted its Covid-19 vaccine can cause a rare side effect.
UK media outlet The Telegraph reported last week that AstraZeneca had admitted in court documents that its Covid-19 vaccine can lead to TTS (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome), which causes people to have blood clots and a low blood platelet count.
“They are a large pharmaceutical company and vaccine manufacturer. They must provide clarification not only to Malaysia but also to the rest of the world,” health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said.
“I prefer for it (explanation) to be stated openly to everyone … the public and the media.
“They (AstraZeneca) must take responsibility, just as we must take responsibility. We don’t want to hide anything,” Kosmo reported him as saying after visiting a health-screening programme at the Tun Abdul Razak Orang Asli village in Kuala Kubu Baharu today.
Dzulkefly urged the public not to draw hasty conclusions regarding AstraZeneca’s admission, saying Covid-19 vaccines have been beneficial in general.
“I urge you (the public) to think logically,” he said.
“The incidence rate is 0.9% per million. Weigh the pros and cons based on evidence, and put it (side effects) into perspective.”
On Sunday, The Telegraph reported that AstraZeneca is being sued in a class action suit over claims that its vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford, caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases.
AstraZeneca is contesting the claims but has accepted, in a legal document submitted to the UK High Court in February, that its Covid-19 vaccine “can, in very rare cases, cause TTS”.
Lawyers believe the admission could pave the way for a multi-million pound compensation, with 51 cases filed in the UK High Court with claims totalling almost £100 million (RM512 million).