Faulty method of injecting vaccine could cause clotting, reveals study

Blood clotting post vaccination could be because of improper method of injection of adenovirus-based COVID vaccines, says a new study conducted in Europe.

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and a member of the association’s National Taskforce for COVID-19, said, “If the tip of the needle doesn’t reach deep enough in the muscle or if it hits a blood vessel, the vaccine can be directly injected into the bloodstream. This can happen when the skin is pinched up by an inadequately trained health worker.”

Dr Jayadevan told The Times of India that intra-muscular injections should be administered without pinching up skin. This is important to ensure the tip of the needle touches the muscle. “When the skin is pinched up, the needle tip reaches only the subcutaneous tissue. As a result, the vaccine is not absorbed properly and may hit a blood vessel that travels through the layer in between skin and muscle which contains a network of blood vessels,” he added.

The study that establishes the exact reason for clotting in vaccinated patients was conducted on mice in Munich University in Germany and was followed by a research institute in Italy. It is now evident that clotting does not happen because of adenovirus-based COVID vaccines, but due to wrong injection technique.

AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik jab are prominent adenovirus-based COVID vaccines. They were banned briefly in Europe after some people vaccinated by these jabs had reportedly died due to clotting.

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The Munich University study also proves that accidental intravenous injection can lead to post-vaccination thrombotic thrombocytopenic syndrome (TTS) also called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

It is not the first time Dr Jayadevan has warned against faulty injection technique increasing chances of rare clotting. He had said in April this year that many health workers do not care to pull back the plunger of the syringe to check if they hit a blood vessel while giving intramuscular injections.

Treatment for clotting

Meanwhile, scientists at McMaster University in Canada have developed a method of treatment that can treat blood clotting caused due to COVID vaccination.

The university suggested a combination of anti-clotting drugs and high doses of intravenous immunoglobulin to combat vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT). The method of treatment worked well in three patients who received the AstraZeneca (Covishield in India) shot in Canada.