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I’ve been asked to simplify and explain about this newly identified “vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia” #VITT that is behind the cases of blood clots due to the AstraZeneca vaccine. Please scroll down for a thread detailing the discovery in simple terms 
https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381093449101930501
https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381093449101930501
THREAD: Scientists have now discovered that those people with rare cases of blood clots reported after getting AstraZeneca vaccine develop these blood clots because of very unusual antibodies that their bodies form which attack their platelets (blood clot forming cells) 1/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381093449101930501
These people who get these very rare blood clots after receiving the vaccine do so as a result of autoimmunity induced by the vaccine whereby the body produces these ‘platelet-activating antibodies’ because of the body’s immune reaction going rogue attacking its own platelets 2/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381138100966014977
This is not the first time that scientists have known about these platelet-activating antibodies formed by the body because of autoimmunity. Similar rare cases have also been seen before for some people who react paradoxically to heparin which is a blood-thinning medication 3/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381138209770463233
The good news is that the vaccine-induced immune blood clots as a result of autoimmunity just like heparin-induced cases are extremely rare, much like rare allergies in the population. The bad news is that it is not possible to predict who will get these immune reactions 4/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381138337533194240
Since scientists have now discovered the mechanism behind the vaccine-induced immune blood clot formation because of the platelet-activating antibodies, this paves way for strategies to test who has the antibodies and also life-saving treatment measures against the antibodies 5/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381138436971757570
The huge importance of this new discovery is that it gives medics an understanding about the rare vaccine-induced immune blood clot formation #VITT and clears the air that has clouded the AstraZeneca vaccine whose benefit far outweighs the extremely rare cases of blood clots n/n https://twitter.com/drahmedkalebi/status/1381138532622856195
