{"id":18537,"date":"2024-07-01T18:19:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T16:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=18537"},"modified":"2026-10-09T01:20:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:20:53","slug":"astrazeneca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/astrazeneca\/","title":{"rendered":"“AstraZeneca”: A Deep Wound in Egyptians’ Trust in the Health System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bahaa Osman was thirty-five, in good health and with no health problems, when he suddenly suffered a heart attack in January 2022, just two weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which forced him to have a stent inserted in his coronary artery. His doctor suspected a link between the clot and the vaccine, but could not confirm his suspicions.<\/p>\n

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Doubts continued to trouble the doctor and his patient until AstraZeneca admitted<\/a> for the first time last April that its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, can cause rare side effects in the form of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, which causes blood clots and a low platelet count.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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A medical report on the case of Bahaa Osman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the company’s admission, Osman filed an official complaint with the Cabinet, numbered “7922819”, accompanied by stamped medical reports proving that he suffered a clot in his coronary artery after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine at the health centre in the city of 10th of Ramadan in Sharqia Governorate, and demanding that the Ministry of Health take the necessary action. The complaint was referred to the Health Affairs Directorate in Sharqia Governorate, which stated in an official letter that citizens were vaccinated free of charge at their own wish and that no citizen was forced to receive the vaccines, claiming that it had administered about 2,985,403 doses of AstraZeneca without recording any cases of these complications, and denying any evidence that the vaccine caused the heart clot.<\/p>\n

The directorate’s response is no different from the assertions of Mostafa El-Mohammadi, director of vaccinations at the Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) at the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, in media statements<\/a> last April, that vaccines in Egypt, especially AstraZeneca, were given under emergency approval, and that anyone who received the vaccine did so at their own responsibility and signed an “informed consent<\/strong>” form.<\/p>\n

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The response of the Health Affairs Directorate in Sharqia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Osman denies having signed a liability waiver or having been warned of possible side effects, explaining that he did not seek the vaccine of his own wish, but because of pressure imposed by companies on their employees, and by government offices that barred entry without a vaccination certificate, on instructions from the Prime Minister’s office in Cairo.<\/p>\n

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A Rare Immune Syndrome<\/h3>\n

For Nahla Karam, it took no more than two days after receiving her first dose of the same vaccine in 2022 to be surprised by painless blue bruises and red spots spreading across her body, which led her to an internal medicine doctor, who asked her to do a blood test. Both were shocked to find that her platelet count had reached 35,000, while a normal count ranges between 150,000 and 400,000 platelets per microlitre of blood. The doctor referred her to a haematologist, who told her she was the second case of low platelets to come to his clinic after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, but that he could not be certain before she was tested for hepatitis C and HIV\/AIDS. The results came back negative, so the finger of blame pointed at the vaccine, especially as Nahla was 32 at the time and had no health problems before receiving it.<\/p>\n

The doctor prescribed vitamins that helped her improve before her condition worsened: the red spots spread across her body and face, and she developed severe blood thinning and bleeding. Her platelet count fell to only about 15,000 one evening, and by morning it had dropped to just seven thousand, putting her life in danger. She was immediately admitted to El-Demerdash Hospital for two days, and her brother had to buy platelets for her from the blood bank, as they were not available at the hospital. After she was discharged, she had to take high doses of cortisone.<\/p>\n

There is a rare immune syndrome that can occur after receiving any of the viral vector vaccines, including the AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, leading to low platelets or clots. It affects one in every three million people who receive the vaccine and occurs within two to three weeks of vaccination, according to Amgad El-Haddad, head of the allergy and immunology department at the Egyptian Company for Serum and Vaccines (VACSERA), speaking to Zawia3.<\/p>\n

He considers that the benefit of vaccination was great given the spread of the pandemic and the deaths it caused, as COVID-19 infection itself caused many patients to develop clots in the lungs, the pulmonary artery or the brain, leading to the deaths of some of them, pointing out that the number of these victims far exceeds the number of those who developed the rare immune syndrome after receiving a viral vector vaccine.<\/p>\n

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In April 2021, the European Medicines Agency revealed<\/a> cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis among a group of people under 60 after receiving a dose of the Oxford\/AstraZeneca vaccine, at a rate of one in every 100,000 people, while a group of European health agencies announced<\/a> in September 2021 a very rare side effect of the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna: inflammation of the heart muscle, “myocarditis”, and inflammation of the fluid-filled sac surrounding the heart, “pericarditis”, with symptoms including chest pain, shortness of breath and palpitations or an irregular heartbeat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

El-Haddad does not know whether recipients of viral vector vaccines at vaccination centres in Egypt were warned that they might cause rare side effects, especially those with high blood pressure or a predisposition to clots, but he explains that he and a number of doctors and officials at serum and vaccine centres warned of this on their social media pages, pointing out that some citizens requested vaccination because of travel-related precautionary measures, and because the vaccines were approved in countries around the world.<\/p>\n

Victims of the AstraZeneca vaccine<\/a> in the United Kingdom alone had filed about 51 lawsuits with the High Court seeking compensation from the company of up to GBP 100 million. The first victim<\/a> in Britain was a father of two named Jamie Scott, who suffered a blood clot and a brain bleed that left him unable to work after receiving the vaccine in April 2021. According to official data<\/a>, 585 young people aged between 12 and 29 died in Britain up to 2 February 2022 within 12 weeks of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, as a result of myocarditis or pericarditis, the inflammation of the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the heart. The finger of blame was pointed at the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but a link between them and the deaths has not been proven.<\/p>\n

The head of the allergy and immunology department at VACSERA stresses that the epidemiological situation now differs from what it was during the pandemic, and that the coronavirus has become weak, so there is no longer a need to receive a vaccine that may cause rare side effects, which led to the decision to withdraw the AstraZeneca vaccine from the market.<\/p>\n

Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, had announced<\/a> in January 2022 that a total of 37 million citizens had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 25.2 million the second dose and 580,000 the third booster dose, with the total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses used reaching 62,819,935.<\/p>\n

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The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population had announced in March 2023 that the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Egypt had reached 24,812, with Egypt ranking 43rd<\/a> globally on the list of countries by number of deaths reported to the World Health Organization, and total infections reaching 515,759.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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A Routine Procedure to Disclaim Responsibility<\/h3>\n

Mohamed Hassan Khalil, a health systems expert and head of the Committee for the Defence of the Right to Health, a Cairo-based popular committee that set out health-related demands, stresses that informed consent to any medical procedure, from anything that enters the skin, such as injecting dye for an X-ray, to surgical operations, which informs the patient of the procedure’s pros and cons and its possible risks or side effects, is one of patients’ rights and a procedure followed in medical sectors in most countries. In Egypt, however, it is implemented correctly only in individual cases by some doctors, as hospitals usually settle for obtaining the signature of the patient or relatives on a declaration of consent to surgery, as a routine procedure to disclaim their responsibility. He explains that the circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak prevented “informed consent” from being applied to vaccines, especially as time was not on the side of conducting sufficient scientific trials to identify the uncommon side effects of COVID-19 vaccines and their long-term effects.<\/p>\n

The health systems expert explains that no body has the right to force citizens to undergo a medical procedure, but he considers an epidemic outbreak an exceptional situation that allows some precautionary measures, including requiring employees of institutions crowded with citizens to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the epidemic, believing that the risks and deaths resulting from the spread of the coronavirus at its peak are greater than the possible side effects and risks of the vaccines, which included clots and low platelets and in rare cases led to death.<\/p>\n

He points out that the vaccine-producing companies stalled and held back for a long time on disclosing serious uncommon side effects, to protect their profits from vaccine sales, which amounted to billions of dollars, and that the disclosure came amid trends in the United States and Europe towards rejecting vaccinations in general, based on misleading pseudo-scientific claims such as aluminium in vaccine suspensions causing intellectual disability, autism and cerebral palsy.<\/p>\n

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The Government Did Not Deliberately Conceal<\/h3>\n

Ayman Sabae, health researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, denies that the Egyptian Ministry of Health knew about the uncommon side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, foremost AstraZeneca, and deliberately concealed them from citizens, stressing that it complied with the World Health Organization’s guidelines on combating COVID-19, which included social distancing, wearing masks and administering vaccines approved by the WHO and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).<\/p>\n

Sabae believes it is difficult to prove a link between vaccines and some rare side effects that may extend to death, as this requires much scientific research and a long time to discover, citing the fact that the harms of cigarettes were only discovered about 50 years after they were manufactured and promoted, and likewise infant formula, which was later shown to be no better than breastfeeding, as well as glass syringes, which transmitted blood diseases and spread hepatitis C among Egyptians. He considers that all medicines have side effects, some of which are serious and may cause death, and that the harms of vaccines are no less than the dangers of the epidemic spreading.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Alaa Ghannam, a health policy expert and director of the right to health programme at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, believes it is difficult to prove a link between COVID-19 vaccines and some health problems experienced by those who received them, especially if they occurred more than two weeks later, and if the recipient had doses of different vaccines. He points out that he himself received three doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the third made by AstraZeneca, and two years later he suffered a clot, and he does not know whether there is a link between the clot and the vaccine because it is difficult to prove.<\/p>\n

Ghannam believes that citizens in Egypt were not forced to receive COVID-19 vaccines, especially as the number of vaccines was limited and those who received them were a small proportion of the population, explaining that those who volunteered for the clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine signed informed consent forms, and stressing that the measures taken in Egypt to deal with the pandemic were part of the global exaggeration in handling the pandemic and alarmism about its danger, which allowed pharmaceutical companies, laboratories and medical sectors around the world to make huge profits.<\/p>\n

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Forced Vaccination<\/h3>\n

Malek Adly, a prominent human rights lawyer and director of the lawyers’ network at the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, does not hold the companies producing COVID-19 vaccines responsible for the uncommon side effects that affected some citizens in Egypt, because they disclosed that their vaccines had not undergone sufficient clinical trials, and some warned of possible side effects such as clots.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he blames the recently resigned Egyptian government for a package of administrative decisions and measures it took during the COVID-19 pandemic, which included forcing large sections of citizens to receive COVID-19 vaccines, such as barring university students from entering universities without the vaccine, forcing public sector employees to be vaccinated, requiring lawyers to bring a vaccination certificate to enter courts, and refusing to issue official papers or renew car licences without a vaccination certificate. He stresses that no legal provision gives the government the right to do so, as a necessary medical procedure can only be forced in life-threatening cases and in cases of loss of legal capacity or loss of reason, although the COVID-19 pandemic was the first of its kind in modern times and was accompanied by unprecedented exceptional measures, pointing to other countries’ experiences in leaving non-binding alternatives to vaccination for their citizens, such as working and studying online, and exemptions for health reasons.<\/p>\n

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The decision of the Supreme Committee for the Management of Health Crises and Pandemics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adly believes that Egypt fundamentally suffers from poor health services and a lack of transparency and freedom of information, in addition to the dominance of multinational companies and their influence on some decisions, considering that these reasons led the Ministry of Health not to disclose cases harmed by the vaccines or that died because of their uncommon side effects. He explains that vaccine recipients were usually forced to sign a liability waiver, taking the vaccine at their own personal responsibility, even though they may have been forced to do so.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet’s Media Centre had set out in a report<\/a> issued in March 2021 the pre-vaccination guidelines: telling the doctor about any symptoms felt before receiving the vaccine, giving the doctor a detailed medical history, including whether one suffers from any chronic disease, how well it is controlled and the treatment plan, as well as telling the doctor about any allergic reaction to any previously received vaccine.<\/p>\n

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However, many citizens Zawia3 spoke with denied being asked about this or warned of uncommon side effects, while some were required to sign a form<\/a> containing the recipient’s personal data and the nature of his examination and health condition before vaccination, stating that the recipient agreed that the vaccine is not mandatory and does not fully protect against infection with the novel coronavirus, but may reduce the chances of infection and of severe symptoms or serious complications; that the vaccine had been granted an “emergency use” licence only; that he had received a full explanation of the vaccine he chose and its side effects and complications; that he was aware of all possible side effects and complications associated with receiving the vaccine, as well as all its possible risks and benefits; and exempting the state, the country’s authorities and health bodies and their employees and agents, their affiliated companies, the vaccine manufacturers and their employees, and the vaccine suppliers, their affiliates and agents, from any and all liabilities or claims for any known or unknown reasons that may arise from, relate to or be connected in any way with receiving the vaccine, except in the case of gross breach or explicit violation of sound medical rules and practices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Lawsuit Rejected<\/h3>\n

A number of citizens filed a lawsuit in 2022 against the vaccine mandate decisions in Egypt, No. 4912 of judicial year 76, before the Administrative Court in Cairo, demanding the cancellation of the Cabinet’s decision<\/a> of 19 October 2021 barring employees from entering government facilities without vaccination from 15 November 2021, and requiring employees to submit a negative PCR test every three days to be allowed into their workplace.<\/p>\n

According to human rights lawyer Assaad Heikal, speaking to us, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of 12 plaintiffs, in addition to 10 other citizens who joined it, the court ruled on 28 May 2022 to accept the lawsuit in form and reject it on the merits. The ruling was based on the decisions having been issued by the Supreme Committee for the Management of the Epidemics and Health Pandemics Crisis, chaired by the Prime Minister, which included barring citizens and employees from entering government facilities without receiving the vaccine or presenting a PCR test certificate no more than three days old, based on Article 2 of the Prime Minister’s decree. He explained that he appealed the ruling before the First Circuit of the Supreme Administrative Court, under registration No. 77539 of judicial year 68.<\/p>\n

Heikal believes that these measures were marked by exaggeration and arbitrariness, disrupted citizens’ interests and cut off their livelihoods, and violated citizens’ right to choose whether or not to take a medicine.<\/p>\n

He stresses that the authorities have no right to force citizens to take a drug, especially as the vaccines were experimental and had side effects for some, pointing out that those harmed by vaccines can go to court if the harm and its link to the vaccine are proven, citing Article 163<\/a> of the Civil Code, which establishes the obligation to compensate for any fault that causes harm to others and is worded in general terms, making it cover every wrongful act or statement, whether or not it constitutes a punishable crime.<\/p>\n

Bahaa has found himself forced to live with a heart stent as a young man, which prevents him from living normally and threatens him with possible future complications, and he was disappointed by the health directorate’s response. Nahla recently suffered a new relapse because of low platelets, which causes her bleeding, even though two years have passed since she received the vaccine. She considers herself luckier than others who developed clots alongside the condition she suffers from, while others suffer in silence, and still others believe the vaccine caused the deaths of relatives through clots, without being able to prove the harm they suffered or sue those responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egyptians harmed by rare AstraZeneca vaccine side effects, including blood clots and low platelets, are seeking compensation and accountability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[19768,19769,19760,19761,19764,19762,19766,19763,19765,19767],"kateb":[1550],"class_list":["post-18537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en","tag-administrative-court-vaccine-case","tag-article-163-civil-code","tag-astrazeneca-vaccine-egypt","tag-covid-19-vaccine-side-effects","tag-informed-consent-egypt","tag-thrombosis-with-thrombocytopenia-syndrome","tag-trust-in-egyptian-health-system","tag-vaccine-injury-compensation","tag-vaccine-mandates-egypt","tag-vacsera","kateb-aya-yasser"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u062f\u0648\u0627\u0621.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18538,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18537\/revisions\/18538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18537"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=18537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}