AstraZeneca defiant in face-off with vaccine victims

Vaccine maker AstraZeneca is doubling down on claims that its COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is safe, even as scores of victims sue the company over serious injuries from the shots.

'I couldn't really believe it could be the vaccine'

A Scottish woman named Claire Bowie took the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 shot in April 2021. Two weeks later, the mother of three became paralyzed from the chest down. After many tests, she was diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalitis complicated by transverse myelitis (ADEM), which is described as a brief but intense inflammation in the brain and spinal cord.

Bowie remained in the hospital for months, where she was given a mixture of steroids and other drugs. At one point, she met with a doctor who quickly identified the cause as the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Bowie was so confident in the vaccine’s safety that she refused to believe it.

“I actually argued with him,” she told the Daily Mail last week. “I couldn't really believe it could be the vaccine. He said it is 100 percent the vaccine. He was absolutely definite on it and I am very grateful for that because I am assuming that's why I got the vaccine damage payment.”

Her husband applied to the UK government's Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in 2021. The program's purpose is to compensate vaccine victims, though it caps compensation at £120,000 ($153,000). Injured parties who claim more than that can try to get it by suing the vaccine maker. 

Bowie finally received her payment from the UK government nearly two years later in February 2023.

“You think £120,000 is massive. I have been in the civil service all my life, I wasn't used to that money. But the bottom line is it doesn't clear your mortgage and modify your house,” she said.

Bowie is still mostly paralyzed, though she has begun a slow recovery process and can now walk up to 20 steps a day.

AstraZeneca: ‘Benefits outweigh the risks’

AstraZeneca has not backed away from its claims that the vaccine is safe.

“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 the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects,” the company said.

Pharma giant acknowledges over 80 dead from vaccine

Over 50 UK citizens who say they are victims of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, or are relatives of vaccine victims, insist that the government's £120,000 ($153,000) cap is insufficient to cover damages. They are taking the only other legal action available to them by suing the pharmaceutical giant over their injuries. 

The company reportedly admitted in February that its injection has been known to cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, a condition that causes blood clots which are accompanied by a low platelet count. 

AstraZeneca also acknowledged in court documents that its vaccine has caused at least 80 deaths in the UK, though it continues to maintain that severe adverse events are rare and refuses to accept liability.

This month, AstraZeneca withdrew its vaccine worldwide. The company says the shot has been pulled for commercial reasons and that the decision is not connected to its legal battle.