On April 28, 2024, the Telegraph reported that AstraZeneca acknowledged links between rare blood clots and the vaccine for the first time in court documents related to a November 2023 class action lawsuit by alleged victims of complications related to the vaccine.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Wednesday said it planned to withdraw its Covid-19 vaccine as demand for it has declined. Demand for the vaccine has tailed off as newer shots targeted toward specific variants of Covid-19 have become available,

The firm said the decision was taken because of a decline in demand for the vaccine.

The company faced a class-action lawsuit that claimed the vaccine caused TTS – which stands for Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome. TTS causes people to have blood clots and a low blood platelet count, according to The Associated Press. The application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and went into effect on Tuesday.

Drugmaker AstraZeneca is reportedly pulling its COVID-19 vaccine from global markets due to a surplus of updated alternatives that have led to a drop-off in demand.

The antivaccine lobby had a field day with fuelling the “infodemic”, including other false claims such as fabricated links between the vaccine and female infertility. As with the blood clots, COVID infection is known to increase the risks of infertility, but there is no link between infertility and the vaccine.

The PF4 antibodies in the classical adenoviral vector VITT and the adenovirus infection-associated VITT share the same molecular fingerprints or signatures, according to a recent study conducted by scientists from Flinders University in Australia and other international locations.

A study links AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine to another fatal blood clotting disorder called vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT). VITT emerged in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.