At a time when the safety aspects of the Covishield vaccine have kicked up a row, a retrospective study by two doctors from Kozhikode has claimed that its risks are minimal in view of the benefits.
The findings of the study are now being peer-reviewed ahead of their publication in a reputed medical journal. T. Jayakrishnan, head of the Department of Community Medicine, and Sruthi Krishna, senior resident, KMCT Medical College, Kozhikode, are the authors.
The controversy arose after pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca admitted in the High Court of London, United Kingdom, that its vaccine against COVID-19 had the potential to cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, a rare side-effect associated with blood clotting in the brain. The vaccine, developed in association with the University of Oxford, was distributed in India under the label Covishield.
