“Johnson & Johnson’s Covid vaccine”, suspended in the United States after some cases of severe thrombosis, “is based on the same principles as that of AstraZeneca. It is likely that the very rare adverse events that have been reported for the two products , are due to the same mechanism. With the same hypothesis of autoimmune origin. In fact, the available data seem to indicate the existence of an autoimmune reaction “. Andrea Cossarizza, professor of General Pathology and Immunology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, explains this to time.news Salute, commenting on the stop to the vaccine in the USA.
“These – explains Cossarizza – are extremely rare events: in the US, six cases are reported, of which one fatal and one serious, out of just under 7 million vaccinations. And they all concern women, as we have seen with AstraZeneca, among the 18 and 48 years. The hypothesis, therefore, is that at the base of this phenomenon there is an immunopathogenesis mechanism that activates an excessive immune response against some component of the organism. In women in that age group, moreover, it is more frequent the incidence of autoimmune diseases “.
The immunologist recalls that on J&J, at the moment, there are no published analyzes while for AstraZeneca two important works have been published, on April 9 in the New England Journal of Medicine, “which show the presence of antibodies to PF4, molecules present in platelets,” similar to those seen in rare patients after treatment with heparin. The pathogenetic mechanism of Astrazeneca, therefore, has already been partially identified “.
The commonalities between the cases, however, are there. “They are all women, in good health, of the same age group. And in women, for reasons also related to hormones and gender, there is a greater predisposition to develop autoimmune diseases”, concludes the immunologist who, considering the numbers and the rarity of cases highlights how the identification of these very rare adverse events demonstrates “that the pharmacovigilance system is efficient, in Europe as in the USA”.