Results confirm how uncommon known complications are as researchers confirm benefits from vaccines still ‘vastly outweigh the risks’
Two new but exceptionally rare Covid-19 vaccine side effects – a neurological disorder and inflammation of the spinal cord – have been detected by researchers in the largest vaccine safety study to date.
The study of more than 99 million people from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland also confirmed how rare known vaccine complications are, with researchers confirming that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines still “vastly outweigh the risks”.
Researchers working as part of the Global Vaccine Data Network used deidentified electronic healthcare data to compare the rates of 13 brain, blood and heart conditions in people after they received the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine with the rate that would be expected of those conditions in the population before the pandemic.
Taking ANY vaccine has risks, and these vaccines even more so, considering their untested nature when they were introduced. We had to trust the science, but it was still a gamble.
I took the vaccine knowing that side effects were possible. That was a risk I felt comfortable with, knowing that everyone else who took it faced that same level of risk and uncertainty.
It sucks that some had these side effects, but the effectiveness of the vaccine has saved countless more lives.
Let’s not forget that before the vaccine, Covid was quite deadly. We had literal mass graves, trucks full of bodies, mass cremations that couldn’t keep up with the death toll. Between that and the vaccine risk… the choice was easy. We came way closer to catastrophe than we like to think about.
There were several missteps by vaccine proponents that undermined their case. There was also a lot of hyperbole from vaccine hesitant people that made them look hysterical.
Really. What missteps were made? The hysteria from hesitant anti-vaxxers and political fear mongerers were real, I would call “hesitant” people the ones who realize vaccines are a likely necessity but didn’t understand how the COVID vaccines worked and were probably influenced by lies from the ant-vax crowd.
What middle ground could possibly be made here regarding “truth”? Vaccine risks are known and fairly well established. The risks of early COVID strains were known. The only people straddling a fence in the middle are those who lack the knowledge of the risks or have objectively real medical problem with vaccines, not some made-up junk about mercury or something.
Vaccines are neither a 100% safe panacea, nor are they injectable death.
OMG this is binary JAQing off. Nobody suggests either of these and it’s ridiculous to even posit this phrase.
Regarding mass graves:
New York:
https://time.com/5913151/hart-island-covid/
Peru:
Brazil:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22C0D2/
Trucks full of bodies:
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/05/07/us/new-york-coronavirus-victims-refrigerated-trucks/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/texas-arizona-coronavirus-deaths-refrigerated-trucks-morgues/
Mass cremations and associated issues:
https://www.vox.com/first-person/22434028/india-covid-cremations
Now granted, some of those spilled over to when vaccines were available in the west. China had issues with lots of cremations as late as early 2023.
EVERYTHING has risks. People have choked to death on food before - that’s not the reason to stop eating. There’s a risk the ceiling is going to fall down on your head at any moment, but then if you go outside, there’s a risk you might get hit by lightning or a bolt that fell off a Boeing flying above…
That’s not a dig at you by the way - it’s at people who argue in bad faith asking for 100% guarantees of safety, be it for vaccines or anything else. It is not possible, and people need to comprehend it - in this case the risk is on the level of being hit by lighting, so unless you’re afraid of going outside, you shouldnt be afraid of the darn vaccine…
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis and transverse myelitis following COVID-19 vaccination - A self-controlled case series analysis - doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.099. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38350771/
Abstract
Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM) and Transverse Myelitis ™ are within the group of immune mediated disorders of acquired demyelinating syndromes. Both have been described in temporal association following various vaccinations in case reports and case series and have been evaluated in observational studies. A recent analysis conducted by The Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) observed an excess of ADEM and TM cases following the adenoviral vectored ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) and mRNA-1273 vaccines, compared with historically expected background rates from prior to the pandemic. Further epidemiologic studies were recommended to explore these potential associations. We utilized an Australian vaccine datalink, Vaccine Safety Health-Link (VSHL), to perform a self-controlled case series analysis for this purpose. VSHL was selected for this analysis as while VSHL data are utilised for GVDN association studies, they were not included in the GVDN observed expected analyses. The VSHL dataset contains vaccination records sourced from the Australian Immunisation Register, and hospital admission records from the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset for 6.7 million people. These datasets were used to determine the relative incidence (RI) of G040 (ADEM) and G373 ™ ICD-10-AM coded admissions in the 42-day risk window following COVID-19 vaccinations as compared to control periods either side of the risk window. We observed associations between ChAdOx1 adenovirus vector COVID-19 vaccination and ADEM (all dose RI: 3.74 [95 %CI 1.02,13.70]) and TM (dose 1 RI: 2.49 [95 %CI: 1.07,5.79]) incident admissions. No associations were observed between mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and ADEM or TM. These findings translate to an extremely small absolute risk of ADEM (0.78 per million doses) and TM (1.82 per million doses) following vaccination; any potential risk of ADEM or TM should be weighed against the well-established protective benefits of vaccination against COVID-19 disease and its complications. This study demonstrates the value of the GVDN collaboration leveraging large population sizes to examine important vaccine safety questions regarding rare outcomes, as well as the value of linked population level datasets, such as VSHL, to rapidly explore associations that are identified.
Keywords: Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis; Adverse reactions; COVID-19; Data linkage; Transverse Myelitis; Vaccination.
Yeah I’ve always been pretty doubtful of the numbers anyone gives. I’ve a lot of friends over four provinces and a couple northern states, moved around a lot over the last 20 years, employed in trades with a lot of free movement. I’d guess I know 30 people died due to opioids and overdoses, etc, the last 5 or 6 years. I don’t know anyone died of covid.
The fuck does your comment have anything to do with COVID vaccine side-effects?!
Also, “I’m doubtful of the numbers anyone gives” Proceeds to give his numbers
Okay? They’re meaningless if we assume everyone has your opinion regarding numbers.
You really need someone to explain why his personal and wide ranging experience across a quarter of a continent involving thousands of people would make him question the numbers, when people he’s knows personally vaguely resemble the stats of the one crisis for their regions, and the people he knows personally do not whatsoever resemble the official numbers in another? This wasn’t complicated.
And if you looked around outside your bubble at all you’d see that Covid has killed more people than the Holocaust. By a significant margin. Including several of my family members. Fuck off with your denialism, millions have died because of attitudes like yours.
I’m always skeptical of the overdose death numbers. I personally know several people that died from Covid and nobody that’s died from opioids.
My manager at a previous employer died of covid while I worked there. This was long after the initial hectic period.
I personally interacted with hundreds of people who would end up passing away from covid-related complications.
Obviously working in healthcare exposes you to this sort of thing more. Outside of that, I had two direct relatives who nearly died (and likely would have if they had caught it when DME companies had run out of oxygen concentrators to rent out in 2020)
Nothing you said is untrue, but none of is is relevant either. You even seem to know that.
It’s relevant because it’s largely regional or circumstantial. The distribution of Covid deaths depends heavily on healthcare system capacity and population density, and when it was bad, it was really bad.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the side effects were a milder version of what those specific people would have had if they had the actual live virus.
No doubt, but the vaccine guarantees exposure and the virus does not (if you basically give up your whole life, anyway.)
Oh great now my brother is going to quadruple down on not vaccinating any of his many kids
My mother too. Haven’t talked to her in 2 years because she went hard with me on how bad the vaccine is and challenged my college education and ability to think critically/do research, ultimately calling me gullible and stupid. It’s worth noting she dropped out of middle school and never even got her GED.
