True toll of blood clot side effect victims of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine may NEVER be known, lawyers claim

We may never know the true number of people laid low by a rare but devastating complication related to AstraZeneca's Covid jab, lawyers representing families have told MailOnline.

Fifty-one families are currently pursuing legal action against the pharmaceutical titan, arguing its 'defective' jab was to blame for their injuries and deaths of loved ones. 

Called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TSS) or alternatively vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) the complication caused dangerous, and potential deadly, blood clots to form in the body. 

Alleged victims are being represented by Sarah Moore, a partner at law firm Leigh Day, who told this website the true scale of the issue may never be uncovered.

‘The criteria for what constituted VITT was really only published and made available to the clinical community from the beginning of March (2021).'

Drugs giant AstraZeneca faces a landmark High Court battle over accusations that some doses of its Covid-19 vaccine were 'defective'

Researchers tasked with investigating the adverse reaction believe it occurs due to the modified cold virus lurking in the jab acting like a magnet to a type of protein in the blood called platelet factor 4. Platelet factor 4 is normally used by the body to promote coagulation in the blood, in case of injury. Then, in rare instances, the body's immune system confuses platelet factor 4 with a foreign invader and releases antibodies to attack it in case of 'mistaken identity'. These antibodies then clump together with platelet factor 4, forming the blood clots that have become so heavily linked with the jab, according to their theory

One of those seeking compensation for injuries linked to the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is father-of-two and IT engineer Jamie Scott (right), His wife Kate (left) said she hoped the new AstraZeneca submission was sign the legal case could be resolved soon 

She added that as the complication was only spotted when the jab started being dished out to younger people, cases in older individuals could potentially have slipped under the radar mistaken for problems linked to Covid or other health issues.

'We may never know if there were other injuries that could have been related to the vaccine before March 2021,' she said, 

Ms Moore said the youngest of the 51 cases included in the action involves someone just 19-years-old.

She added that many of the younger people affected were key workers or those working with vulnerable, like those staffing Food Banks, who got the jab not to protect themselves from the virus but to help keep other people safe.   

Ms Moore added that the firm had been ‘inundated’ with people coming forward claiming that they or family member had been affected by the AstraZeneca's jab, but some have had to be turned away.

'Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, it isn’t feasible for us to take on every case we have been approached with,' she said.  

She added that for some potential victims time to seek compensation had run out.

‘For the claims we are bringing, those injured or bereaved have three years from the date of their injury or the death in which to bring a claim so unfortunately in many cases that cut off has now been reached,' she said. 

Her comments come after Cambridge-based AstraZeneca, which is contesting the claims, recently acknowledged in a legal document submitted to the High Court that its vaccine 'can, in very rare cases, cause TTS'.

TTS is a medical condition where a person suffers blood clots along with a low platelet count. Platelets typically help the blood to clot.

The complication – listed as a potential side effect of the jab – has previously been called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT). 

AstraZeneca's admission could lead to pay-outs on a case-by-case basis.  

TTS, or vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), is thought to be linked to at least 81 deaths in the UK. 

Not all are proven, however. And not every family is seeking legal action. 

The complication is exceedingly rare, given the millions of doses dished out during the roll-out. 

Taxpayers will foot the bill of any potential settlement because of an indemnity deal AstraZeneca struck with the Government in the darkest days of Covid to get the jabs produced as quickly as possible while the country was paralysed by lockdowns. 

It comes just days after the firm reported a revenue exceeding £10billion in the first quarter of 2024, a rise of 19 per cent. Company officials stated it had enjoyed a 'very strong start' to the year. 

AstraZeneca said in a statement: 'Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems. 

'Patient safety is our highest priority, and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

'From the body of evidence in clinical trials and real-world data, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine has continuously been shown to have 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.'

The new documents submitted to the court marks a change of language from the previous AstraZeneca submissions made last year, when it claimed that TSS couldn't be caused by its jab 'at a generic level'.

Its new submission also adds that the trigger that causes some people to suffer TSS from the AstraZeneca jab is unknown and can also occur in people independent of any vaccine.

It claims: 'Causation in any individual case will be a matter for expert evidence.' 

Similar action to that being taken by British families is understood to be underway in other countries where the AstraZeneca jab was deployed, including in Germany and Italy. 

AstraZeneca denies its new submission represents a U-turn on acknowledging its jab can cause TTS in court documents.

Lawyers representing victims and families are suing AstraZeneca under the Consumer Protection Act 1987.

They argue the vaccine was 'a defective product' that was 'not as safe as consumers generally were reasonably entitled to expect'. AstraZeneca has strongly denied these claims. 

Health officials first identified cases of VITT linked to AstraZeneca's jab in Europe as early as March 2021, just over two months after the vaccine was first deployed in the UK. 

However, it wasn't until April that year that evidence became clear enough that the jab started to be restricted.

Spooked officials first restricted the jab to only people over 30. They then narrowed this to only over-40s in May 2021.

As the vaccine still worked against Covid, it was still deemed worth giving to older Brits who were at greater risk of death or injury from falling ill with the virus.

About 50million doses of the AstraZeneca jab were dished out in the UK in total.

Official data shows at least 81 Brits have died from blood clot complications apparently linked to the AstraZeneca jab, according to figures collected by the UK's drug watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

A further unconfirmed number have been injured and/or disabled. 

Further Covid vaccine rollouts have either minimised use of the AstraZeneca jab and/or phased it out entirely in favour of mRNA alternatives like those made by rival pharma giants Pfizer and Moderna. 

The graph shows the cumulative number of Covid jabs dished out in the UK since the pandemic began, the percentage of each age group which has had a jab (bottom left) and the number of each Covid vaccine brand dished out

The AstraZeneca vaccine is a genetically engineered common cold virus that used to infect chimpanzees. It has been modified to make it weak so it does not cause illness in people and loaded up with the gene for the coronavirus spike protein, which Covid-19 uses to invade human cells

With health officials not ordering any more doses, this effectively means the jab has all but been withdrawn in the UK. 

The risk of TTS following AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is thought to be in the region of one in 50,000. 

However, AstraZeneca's jab is credited with saving some 6million lives globally during the Covid pandemic. 

Victims and families seeking compensation that MailOnline has spoken to staunchly insist they believe in the merits of vaccination for public good and aren't anti-vaxxers. 

The reasons why people are taking legal action are complex.

Some who are severely disabled are facing huge ongoing medical costs as well as being out of work. In some cases, their family members are also having to quit employment to provide them round-the-clock care. 

READ MORE: How safe is AstraZeneca's Covid jab? What rare complications can it cause? Who is taking legal action against the pharma giant? All you need to know 

As survivors and the bereaved keep fighting for compensation, MailOnline answers all your questions on the AstraZeneca saga: What happened? Are there any ongoing health concerns? And what are victims fighting for?

Others are, at least in part, pursuing the action as way of seeking justice for either those they have lost or lives that have been completely upturned by their injuries.

Part of the reason some are seeking action is due to what critics have labelled the inadequate or arbitrary nature of the Government's vaccine damage payment scheme.

This policy, which has been around since the 70s, offers people, or their families, a tax-free sum of £120,000, though restrictions apply.

It is only available to the family of those who died or those left 'severely disabled' — defined as being at least 60 per cent disabled, based on evidence from a doctor — because of a vaccine.

Established back in 1979, the scheme is meant to reassure people that, in the unlikely event something goes wrong, the state will provide support.

In theory, it is meant to combat vaccine hesitancy and encourage the public to get jabbed from various pathogens helping protect the nation from disease.

But critics have said the scheme is arduous, stingy in terms of total amount payout, and cruel in its 60 per cent disability threshold that leaves people less severely injured with nothing. 

As it is not compensation, people who take the payment are still entitled to take legal action against a vaccine manufacturer if they choose, as some people affected by the AstraZeneca jab are. 

Campaigners hope the attention brought by the AstraZeneca case will spark a much needed rethink of how the nation's vaccine injured and bereaved are supported.

If Brits are left destitute from vaccine-derived injuries, experts fear this will fuel vaccine hesitancy in the future, risking public health from a variety of preventable diseases.

It could also leave people vulnerable to a potential future pandemic from a novel virus if some refuse the jabs out of fear that they, or their families, could be left financially ruined if something goes wrong.

One of those seeking compensation is for injuries linked to AstraZeneca's vaccine is father-of-two and IT engineer Jamie Scott.

He was left with a permanent brain injury following a blood clot and the bleed on the brain after getting the vaccine in April 2021. He has been unable to work since.

His wife, Kate, is one of critics of the vaccine damage payment scheme, previously saying: 'Even if we do get the £120,000 payment, it's not enough to keep us going for ever. And it's insulting, considering what Jamie has been through.'