A video recently went viral in which a man allegedly claimed that 62% of people who received mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines developed blood clots.
However, healthcare experts have categorically refuted the statement and argue that it lacks evidence, adding that the benefits of mRNA-based Coronavirus vaccines outweigh any associated risk.
Alleged Microscopic Clots
In the video, a Canadian man, who introduces himself as Dr. Charles Hoffe, claims that blood clots caused by mRNA COVID-19 vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna are microscopic and can only be detected through a D-dimer blood test.
D-dimer is a blood protein that is released when a blood clot dissolves or breaks down. An increased D-dimer level can be due to clotting. However, a number of other factors including pregnancy, cigarette smoking, inflammation, and advanced age can cause the D-dimer level to rise.
Hoffe further says that he carried out D-dimer tests on hundreds of recipients of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over the last week. Of them, 62% have evidence of clotting, meaning that these blood clots are not rare. The clots would lead to permanent cell damage in the heart and lungs, he added.
Note that German scientists in May this year found the cause behind the rare blood clots associated with COVID-19 vaccines. However, they studied the Coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), both of which are based on the adenovirus vector platform and not on mRNA technology.
No Evidence to Support The Claim
When asked by the media if he had any printed evidence to corroborate his statement, Hoffe said that these were the initial findings of an ongoing study, which is currently unpublished.
I have realized that I need to publish it, even though the numbers of subjects that I was planning to have in my study are far smaller than my original intention.
He said he lost most of his research work after a fire destroyed his house Lytton, a western Canadian town that was razed to the ground as a result of a devastating wildfire last month.
This isn’t the first time Hoffe has disseminated misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
Here is the video.
Fake News
A senior clinical lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Tom Wingfield, strongly disagrees with Hoffe’s claims.
Wingfield explained that a raised D-dimer level does not mean that an individual has developed a blood clot. It calls for further investigation such as a scan of the chest or leg, depending on the symptoms, to determine what caused the D-dimer level to increase.
The raised D-dimer can result from a wide range of factors and it is not a proof of blood clots, Wingfield said, adding that the D-dimer test is not performed routinely after COVID-19 vaccination.
He noted that blood clots with low platelets, including blood clots in the brain, are extremely rare and occur at an estimated rate of 5 to 16 cases per million people annually.
The incidence rate of blood clots after the first dose of AstraZeneca stands at 14.9 cases per million and 1.8 cases per million after the second dose.
Wingfield concluded that current research has not shown a link between mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines and blood clots, and the techniques employed by Hoffe to ascertain the link are highly unreliable.
