The consequences of a defective Covid-19 vaccine are workplace accidents

BarcelonaThe High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) is the first in Spain to rule that a teacher's sick leave due to adverse effects from a defective batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines should be considered a workplace accident. This was explained on Monday by the Col·lectiu Ronda cooperative of lawyers, who represented the secondary school teacher, a substitute. The teacher was vaccinated before most of the population, in February 2021, due to her status as an essential worker, along with security forces and healthcare personnel. Even so, given her age group, she would not have been eligible until June of that year. A few weeks after the campaign began, authorities issued a safety alert and halted the supply of the ABV5300 vaccine batch from the British manufacturer, as some patients who had received the dose had suffered severe cases of thrombosis. 228,000 vaccines from that batch arrived in Spain.

Specifically, after receiving the dose, this teacher was diagnosed with chronic cavernous sinus thrombosis, meaning a blood clot had formed in the large veins of the brain, located at the base of the skull. These complications forced her to be on temporary disability leave between March 1, 2021, and August 22, 2022. However, both the National Social Security Institute (INSS) and the Social Court No. 2 of Tarragona refused to consider it an accident resulting from work-related contingencies. Now, the TSJC (High Court of Justice of Catalonia) has issued a ruling to the contrary and has sided with the teacher. In its ruling, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) points out that, for an incident to be considered a workplace accident, it is not necessary for the work itself to be the determining cause; rather, the existence of indirect causality is sufficient to conclude that the events stem from professional activity. In other words, had vaccination not been prioritized for teachers—because they were essential workers and to protect students—the teacher would not have received a vaccine from the defective batch of AstraZeneca, which caused her temporary disability due to thrombosis. Serious consequences

"In Spain, before the health authorities froze these doses, the defective vaccine was administered to a large number of workers who, at that initial stage of the pandemic, performed essential functions that involved a high risk of exposure to the virus," emphasizes Pilar Casas, the lawyer for Colectivo Ronda. In this regard, she believes that all these people were at risk of developing thrombosis and other serious complications as a result of the urgency to accelerate the vaccination process, since the teacher in question was not yet eligible for vaccination due to her age. "The vast majority of those affected are not having the work-related origin of the health problems caused by the defective vaccine recognized, with the resulting economic consequences, especially in cases of permanent disability. The National Social Security Institute (INSS) refuses to acknowledge this," the lawyer insists.