COVID-19: Vaccines are safe; new evidence suggests that an adjustment in how they are given can prevent the complication that worries many

Dec 05, 2021 Dr Zulfikar Bux, Features / Columnists

By Dr. Zulfikar Bux
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine

Kaieteur News – In the initial phase of COVID-19, we all felt helpless and couldn’t wait for a vaccine to come out and help us against this dreaded disease. Unfortunately, there were a few cases of blood clots being triggered from the vaccines and this led to mass fear of vaccines and vaccine hesitancy. As a result, we lost the opportunity to gain the upper hand against this disease because there were too many that didn’t vaccinate, giving the virus opportunities to mutate into more efficient forms. Scientists have now found an explanation on why blood clots formed in a rare few when they received their COVID-19 vaccines.

How were the blood clots formed?
A group of scientists from the UK and US, teamed up to study the AstraZeneca vaccine and why it triggered blood clots to rarely form in some that received it. They found that when the vaccine is given directly into the bloodstream, it can attract a protein in the blood called platelet factor 4. This can sometimes trigger an inflammatory or clotting response leading to blood clots being formed or an inflammation of vital organs in the body. While vaccines are given in the muscle, very rarely, the needle can enter a blood vessel causing the vaccines to be given into the bloodstream.

How are vaccines usually given?
I have seen the trend worldwide where the needle is “jabbed” into a muscle, often the deltoid muscle of the arm, and the vaccine is injected right away into the muscle. I was taught differently; we were always told to aspirate (pull back) on the syringe before injecting the vaccine/medication into the muscle. The wisdom in pulling the syringe back was that if your needle was accidentally in a blood vessel (which occurs rarely), you will see blood coming back into your syringe. Should that occur, we were taught to pull the syringe and needle out and to not administer the vaccine or injection at that site as it would most likely enter the bloodstream. Somehow, that practice has become less popular with time and the routine these days is to inject the vaccine right after the needle enters the muscle without aspirating.

So what is the best way forward?
Given these new findings, experts are recommending that the simplest way to avoid the rare vaccine complication that worries many, is to aspirate (pull back) the syringe before pushing on it when the needle has entered the muscle. This will most likely prevent the vaccine from being administered directly into the bloodstream and triggering a clotting and inflammatory response. It is also a step that will assure many that they do not have to worry about the vaccine complication once blood did not come into their syringe when the health provider aspirated before delivering their vaccine. Re-introducing this simple step will make the vaccine process even safer than they are currently and should alleviate fears for those that are worried about the rare complications of COVID-19 vaccines.
This study has helped to strengthen the point that the contents of the vaccines are safe and are not the problem. These vaccines were designed to be given to muscles and slowly absorb. A simple adjustment in the technique of their administration will ensure that this occurs and avoid them going directly into the bloodstream. So, go get your vaccine or your booster and make sure that your provider aspirates before pushing the vaccine into your muscle. Once this is done, you should not have to worry about any rare complication.

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