By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A new peer-reviewed study has identified how the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccines can cause a rare blood-clotting condition.

The study, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), found that an immune response to the adenovirus contained in the vaccines can cause vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT).

The AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines used an adenoviral vector to deliver a gene for SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein into the body’s cells.

The study notes that in rare cases, VITT is also linked to natural adenovirus infection, which typically produces cold symptoms.

Approximately 1 in 200,000 people who received the AstraZeneca or J&J vaccines were diagnosed with VITT. The condition is characterized by thrombosis — blood clotting — often in the brain or abdomen, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported.

VITT is accompanied by immune thrombocytopenia, an autoimmune condition that causes uncontrolled bleeding. Multiple reports of VITT followed the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines. The reports were often linked to the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines.

The NEJM study’s lead researcher, Dr. Ted Warkentin, professor emeritus of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University in Canada, told The Defender that his team studied the blood samples of 100 VITT patients who received either the AstraZeneca or J&J vaccine.

All the patients shared a gene present in 60% of people of European descent. Some also had prior adenovirus infections.

According to the study, the patients’ bodies attacked their own platelets — tiny cell fragments crucial for blood clotting and wound healing — causing them to clump together. This resulted in a low platelet count and the formation of blood clots.

The researchers discovered that in a small number of people, the immune system “can accidentally confuse a normal adenovirus protein with a human blood protein termed platelet factor 4” (PF4), resulting in clotting.

This occurred due to similarities between platelets and the adenovirus contained in the vaccines — a mechanism known as molecular mimicry. In a 2024 paper, the same researchers found that VITT was caused by the adenovirus in the vaccines.

Warkentin said the study’s findings are significant because this mechanism of “adverse immune reaction” was previously unrecognized. He said the mechanism may also be responsible for other vaccine-related adverse events.

“We expect that certain other rare adverse reactions will also potentially be explained by a somatic mutation in an antibody-producing cell,” Wartenstein said.

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said the study shows that while vaccines are treated in a “one-size-fits-all” manner, “we are all different, and those differences have consequences, even dire consequences, when they are not reflected correctly when formulating vaccines and other biologics.”

Is blood clotting also linked to spike protein and mRNA vaccines?

In a post on Substack, immunologist and biochemist Jessica Rose, Ph.D., said the study’s findings provide a “valid” explanation for the onset of VITT and thrombocytopenia.

Rose suggested that the risk should have been identified during the clinical trials for the vaccines.

While the AstraZeneca vaccine was never authorized in the U.S., it was widely administered in Europe and other parts of the world. Months after its rollout, several countries withdrew the vaccine or limited its use due to concerns about blood clotting.

In 2024, AstraZeneca ended production of its COVID-19 shot. An ongoing class-action lawsuit against AstraZeneca in the U.K. alleges the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine caused multiple deaths and injuries, including VITT.

The U.S. and other countries also quickly ended the use of the J&J vaccine due to blood-clotting concerns.

After the adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccines were taken off the market, the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 shots dominated the global market.

While mRNA shots have also been linked to blood clots in some recipients, Warkentin said those shots “do not have any adenovirus protein in them, so any blood clotting consequences (if indeed there are any) could not involve the mechanism(s) described in our paper.”

According to The Epoch Times, some studies have linked both COVID-19 infection and mRNA vaccines “to rare blood-clotting events, potentially related to spike proteins.”

VITT diagnoses and deaths have also been linked to the mRNA shots, according to several case reports.

For instance, a 2023 study published in the journal Vaccines (Basel) reported a case of VITT in a man who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. According to the study, “VITT could still happen without the adenoviral vector vaccines.”

However, Warkentin said that his team’s research “did not find any direct role for the spike protein” in the onset of VITT in patients.

Study shows how little is known about vaccines and vaccine safety

Other researchers questioned these conclusions. Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough said that the researchers “failed to measure and account for” the spike protein, which he called “the major driver of blood clots among the vaccinated.”

“While minor adenoviral antigens can trigger antibodies to PF4, the spike protein found in blood clots after all COVID-19 vaccines accounts for this common and dangerous side effect of vaccination,” McCullough said.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for CHD, said the study illustrates how little is known about vaccines and vaccine safety. He said:

“The findings are germane to adenovirus-vectored vaccines, not directly applicable to mRNA vaccines, protein conjugate vaccines or other live-virus vaccines — though they all share in common our crude understanding of them and the immunological systems upon which they act.

“This discovery, at its core, demonstrates how much we still have to learn, and that must precede any attestation of safety.”

Internal medicine physician Dr. Clayton J. Baker said that “by implicating the adenovirus vector technology in VITT, implicit is the notion that the mRNA platform may be preferable.”

Vaccine injury victim Brianne Dressen, who sued AstraZeneca after receiving the shot during the company’s 2020 U.S. clinical trial and who later founded React19, said her organization includes members who developed blood clots after receiving an mRNA shot.

Dressen said:

“While AstraZeneca and J&J have the highest rate of these types of adverse events (by quite a bit), this still is an issue seen with the mRNA vaccines.

“React19’s membership has people who were harmed the same way from mRNA and the adenoviral vector vaccines. While the mRNA can cause serious problems, it’s also causing the same problems as the adenoviral vector vaccines.”

Study shows vaccines ‘fundamentally unsafe for certain subsets of the population’

According to a press release accompanying the NEJM study, identifying the mechanism through which VITT develops “means vaccine developers can now adjust the adenovirus protein to prevent the problem entirely, helping make future vaccines even safer.”

The press release quoted Dr. Jing Jing Wang, a researcher at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute in Australia and one of the paper’s co-authors. “By modifying or removing this specific adenovirus protein, future vaccines can avoid this extremely rare reaction while continuing to provide strong protection against disease, he said.”

Baker said the study “provides several important takeaways” and “vindicates those who have been diagnosed clinically with VITT, but who were dismissed and gaslit when they attributed this life-threatening condition to vaccines they had received.” However, “none of these findings support the notion of ‘safer’ vaccines,” he said.

The study shows “that vaccines are fundamentally unsafe for certain subsets of the population,” Baker said. “This argues definitively against population-wide mandates” and “shows that the adenovirus vector platform is fundamentally flawed.”

Related articles in The Defender

• More Than 80 Lawsuits in UK Allege AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine Caused Deaths, Severe Injuries
• COVID Shots Linked to More Frequent and Potentially Deadly Abdominal Blood Clots
• AstraZeneca Begins Withdrawing COVID Vaccines Worldwide, Says Decision Not Linked to Lawsuit
• More Deaths Reported After J&J, AstraZeneca Vaccines, Plus Researchers Link AstraZeneca to Strokes in Young Adults
• AstraZeneca Woes Persist as Vaccine Side Effects Generate Headlines
• Man Dies After Second Moderna Dose Following Rare Blood Clotting Disorder Linked to the Vaccine, Doctors Say

The post Study Explains How Some COVID Vaccines Cause Rare Blood-Clotting Disorder appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More