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A man in Brisbane has been rushed to hospital with blood clots just days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.
The 40-year-old man received the Pfizer shot on Sunday, 9 News reported.
He is the fourth person in Australia to develop blood clots following a COVID-19 vaccine, however the other three people received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Queensland Health officials are yet to confirm whether the vaccine and the clots are linked.
Three cases of thrombosis with a low platelet count have were reported in Australia before today’s development, with a 48-year-old woman dying in a NSW hospital last week.
Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), determined the death of the 48-year-old diabetic woman, who developed blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, was likely to be linked to the jab.
“In the absence of an alternative cause for the clinical syndrome, VSIG believed that a causative link to vaccination should be assumed at this time,†a TGA statement said.
TGA said the case had been “complicated by the patient’s underlying medical conditions, including diabetes, some other medical conditions as well as some atypical featuresâ€.
Two other rare blood clot syndrome cases in Australia were also “likely†to be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which included a 44-year old Melbourne man who developed the syndrome earlier in April.
A TGA statement said the first two cases remained in hospital but were recovering well.
The AstraZeneca vaccine remains approved for use in Australia because the risk of developing blood clots is extremely small.
However, the clots prompted the federal government’s health advice to change earlier this month to favour the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine over AstraZeneca for a large portion of the population.
The government accepted advice the small risk of blood clots associated with the AstraZeneca meant it should not be given to people younger than 50.
Combined with a shortage of vaccine doses, the national rollout has been set back considerably from its original October target.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison abandoned any timeline to complete the rollout.
More to come.
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