Nearly 40 American recipients of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines in the US have developed a rare immune disorder that attacks the blood. One patient died after receiving the vaccine.
The slain patient was an American doctor in Miami, who died in January of a brain hemorrhage after he took the jab.
Dr. Gregory Michael, an obstetrician-gynecologist, who worked at Miami Beach’s Mount Sinai Medical Center for more than a decade had received a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine two weeks earlier, and immediately developed immune thrombocytopenia, a rare and sometimes fatal blood disorder.
He is one of at least 36 people to have developed the condition after receiving either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines, according to a New York Times report.
Luz Legaspi, 72, woke up with bruises on her arms and legs, and blisters that bled inside her mouth on Jan. 19.
She was hospitalized in New York City that day with a severe case of immune thrombocytopenia — a lack of platelets, a blood component essential for clotting, the report said.
Another woman was hospitalized with bruising and bleeding blisters in her mouth just a day after receiving the same shot.
The cases were reported to the US government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) before the end of January, meaning more people in the US could have developed the condition since then.
Dr. James Bussel, a hematologist and expert on the condition, said an association to Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines “is possible.”
“Having it happen after a vaccine is well-known and has been seen with many other vaccines,” he said. “Why it happens, we don’t know.”
Immune thrombocytopenia is an autoimmune disease that has affected about 50,000 people in the United States, according to a support group for patients.
The condition develops when the immune system attacks platelets or the cells that create them, for unknown reasons. It sometimes follows a viral illness, and can persist for months or become chronic and last for years.
The efficacy of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines have raised suspicious around the world, with many even in the US remaining hesitant to get the vaccine.
Reports of death after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine developed by US firm Pfizer and German BioNTech also grabbed media attention after at least 33 people in Norway died after taking the first dose of the vaccine in January.
However, major American and British media apparently reached a consensus to downplay the deaths.
Norway expressed concern regarding the safety of the vaccines produced by American Pfizer Inc. on the senior citizens after the fatalities occurred.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) immediately issued a statement after the Norway fatalities reports, saying there is no evidence to link Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine with post-jab deaths in Norway.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency told Bloomberg that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was the only vaccine available in the country, and “all deaths are thus linked to this vaccine.”