(The Hill) A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study has found that mRNA vaccines for the COVID-19 virus are not linked to cardiac death in younger adults.
The study was conducted using Oregon death certificate data for people aged 16 to 30 who died from a heart condition between June 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022. The study was done after cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
Of the 40 people who died who had a COVID vaccine dose, three died within 100 days of receiving their vaccination. Two were because the person had an underlying illness and one had an undetermined cause of death, the CDC said.
The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons, the CDC said.
While the risk of dying due to myocarditis was higher for younger people during 2021, the CDC found that it remained an infrequent cause of death among the age group.
During the same time period, 30 Oregon residents in the same age group died from COVID and only three of the people who died had received any sort of COVID vaccine.
The CDC said the report cant exclude vaccine-related cardiac deaths after the 100-day mark, but published data indicate that potential adverse effects associated with vaccinations tend to occur within 42 days of vaccine receipt.
The study also noted that the small population size made it less likely to see a rare event such as sudden cardiac death among the age group.
The CDC maintains that a COVID vaccination is recommended for all people 6 months and older to prevent infection, complications and death.
From spring break parties to Mardi Gras, many people remember the last major normal thing they did before the novel coronavirus pandemic dawned, forcing governments worldwide to issue stay-at-home advisories and shutdowns.
Even before the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S., fears and uncertainties helped spur misinformations rapid spread. In March 2020, schools closed, employers sent staff to work from home, and grocery stores called for physical distancing to keep people safe. But little halted the flow of misleading claims that sent fact-checkers and public health officials into overdrive.
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Health authorities continue to monitor a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which has infected at least 9 people in South Africa since first being identified last year.
The new covid strains have recently been detected in wastewater in Asia.
Professor Adrian Esterman, Chair of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of South Australia says the US Centre for Disease Control and its European equivalent are now monitoring the BA.2.87.1 subvariant, which has 30 changes in its spike protein, compared to its lineage strain.
This has, so far, been detected in South Africa and Southeast Asia. Although it appears to only have slow growth, that was also true of BA.2.86.1 which then mutated into JN.1, Esterman says.
Although Australia is in its best position with respect to COVID-19 for some time, we should not get complacent. Last month there were over 250 active COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged care homes, and only 36% of Australians aged 75 and over have had a booster shot within the last six months.
We see very little messaging from any of our governments encouraging elderly people to get vaccinated. This is not good enough. We should at the very least still be doing all we can to protect our vulnerable population.
Esterman says Australia is in a trough after the wave caused by the subvariant JN.1 at the end of last year. However, that trough is still at a fairly high level, with over 22,000 confirmed cases so far in March, and presumably many times that number of actual cases, he says.
The subvariant JN.1 and its descendants now account for pretty much all infections in Australia.
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has largely dissipated, the viruss impact has lingered for many Mississippians.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than20%of Mississippis adults have experienced a phenomenon known as long COVID. The Magnolia State has the7th highestshare of its adult population overall that has ever experienced long COVID nationally. Roughly39%of Mississippi adults who have had COVID-19 have had long COVID, the 4th highest rate in the U.S.
Thepatient-created termbroadly defines signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Long COVID is not one condition. Instead, it represents many potentially overlapping conditions. Those conditions are ongoing for many Mississippians. More than 5% of Mississippi adults overall, roughly 10% of those who have ever had COVID-19, are currently dealing with long COVID.
U.S. Census Bureau data indicates differences in who has experienced long COVID based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, age and sex. Among all adults nationally,
The statistics cited represent data available as of March 4, 2024.
COVID-19 with water drops.
Image Credits: Unsplash
In the US, the increase in homelessness, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, poses public health challenges. Research indicates that environmental surveillance of flood control areas can reveal infectious disease prevalence among the homeless, often overlooked in clinical data. This approach provides insights into health trends and emphasizes the importance of public health interventions for marginalized communities.
This approach reflected the variant compositions found in municipal wastewater, and clinical specimens revealed previously unreported mutations, underscoring its potential for enhancing understanding of viral evolution and public health monitoring among underrepresented populations. Researchers focused on analyzing environmental water samples from flood control channels known to be inhabited by unsheltered individuals. Their findings reveal a closer look into the spread and variants of SARS-CoV-2 within these marginalized populations, often missed in traditional clinical data.
The variant compositions in the samples were similar to those in municipal wastewater samples and clinical specimens from the same geographic area and period," according to investigators. "In January 2022, a year after the peak of Alpha variant infections, 10 of the 22 mutations characteristic of the Alpha variant were detected in the environmental water samples. Additionally, mutations in the spike gene, not previously documented in reports, were identified.
This study emphasizes the potential of environmental surveillance in understanding public health dynamics among unsheltered populations. Using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and whole genome sequencing, researchers could identify specific SARS-CoV-2 lineages and mutations within the virus's spike gene, which was previously undocumented.
Tests were conducted for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA within 2 flood control channels frequented by unsheltered individuals residing in upstream tunnels," explains investigators. "Environmental water samples from these channels were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction during periods that coincided with notable COVID-19 outbreaks in the surrounding community.
High SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in these environments, especially during peak periods of the Omicron surge, align with confirmed case counts from clinical surveillance, indicating that even minimal direct human contributions can significantly impact environmental viral loads.
This approach to public health surveillance presents a case for the importance of inclusive public health interventions. By considering the environmental factors and the unique challenges marginalized communities face, public health officials can better strategize interventions to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.
Reference
Harrington A, Vo V, Chang C, et. al. Environmental Surveillance of Flood Control Infrastructure Impacted by Unsheltered Individuals Leads to the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and Novel Mutations in the Spike Gene. Published April 3, 2024. Accessed April 10, 2024. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00938
Healthcare at Foster Creek quickly became the state's largest outbreak site, where 30 residents died from COVID-19 before the state shut it down.
PORTLAND, Ore. Four years later, 13 people who lost loved ones to COVID-19 at a Portland nursing home have reached a settlement with the company that owned it.
In just the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Healthcare at Foster Creek quickly became the state's largest outbreak site. Thirty residents died from COVID-19, and nearly 120 were infected before the state shut down the facility on May 4, 2020.
The plaintiffs sought$1.8 million in damages.
Bonnie Richardson, an attorney for the families that sued, said that the care home, in addition to operating on a for-profit basis, was chronically understaffed and did not have proper infection protocols.
"They treated a lot of these residents as if they were just going to die anyway," she said. "So, in that way, it was, in my opinion, a very poor negligent treatment of all of these individuals and led to a massive disaster."
Richardson said that family members could not visit with their loved ones, so they knew "very little that was going on," even when the state shut down the facility.
"There were no records, nothing," she said. "All of these 13 brave families that came forward ... what they were doing was wanting to make sure that the people were held accountable and to find out what happened to their loved ones when they died."
The details of the settlement are confidential, so the amount of money is unknown, but attorneys for the plaintiffs said they hoped the settlement gives the families closure after years of legal battles.
The pandemic has claimed over seven million lives officially, but the actual death toll is believed to be much higher. Among COVID-19 survivors, a significant number develop long-term health problems. The World Health Organization uses the term Long COVID for individuals experiencing such symptoms for over three months without another explanation.
Unfortunately, measuring chronic illness and disability resulting from COVID-19 has been challenging due to various factors. While binary outcomes like deaths and ICU admissions are easily counted, tracking slow-onset health issues is more difficult. This is further complicated by the fact that new health problems can arise even without SARS-CoV-2 infection. Consequently, studies utilising different methodologies have reported a wide range of Long COVID incidence rates. A recent study inJAMA Network Openhas aimed to address this issue by comparing people who had COVID-19 with those who did not.
The researchers utilised the U.S. blood donor data from 2,38,828 individuals, leveraging antibody test results from the pre-Omicron era to identify individuals who had COVID-19. Specifically, they looked for the presence of anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibodies, which indicates past natural infection. The advantage is that it also identifies people who had asymptomatic infection and those who were infected but did not get tested. The two COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. do not elicit the anti-N antibody, thus distinguishing natural infection from COVID-19 vaccination.
Participants were categorised into those who tested positive for the anti-N antibody and those who did not. A diagnosis of COVID-19 by a healthcare professional or a positive COVID-19 test were also accepted as evidence of infection. Essentially, the researchers were able to distinguish individuals who genuinely had COVID-19 from those who did not, using robust parameters. This differs from other studies that may have relied on self-reported COVID-19 diagnoses, which tend to be less reliable. Having a dependable control group for comparison is crucial for accurately estimating the impact of the pandemic.
The researchers discovered that 43.3% of individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections experienced new symptoms lasting four weeks or longer, after recovering from COVID. Among those without infection, 22.1% reported new-onset symptoms, as might be expected in the general population. This indicated that 21.2%, or the difference between 43.3% and 22.1%, had long-term health problems genuinely resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among them, 84.5% were still experiencing symptoms, while 15.5% said that their symptoms had resolved. Long-term physical symptoms were less common following mild or asymptomatic infection.
Neurological symptoms were reported by 23.6%, while 23.1% experienced other problems such as changes in taste or smell, and 15.8% had cardiac or respiratory symptoms. The two most common individual long-term symptoms were difficulty thinking or concentrating (12.7%) and fatigue (11.1%).
Surprisingly, the picture of mental health was different. Among those without infection, as many as 9.8% developed mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. The incidence was only slightly higher at 11.9% among those with prior infection. This is attributed to loneliness, fear of infection or death of oneself or loved ones, bereavement and financial worries that affected people regardless of their infection status. The World Health Organization (WHO) had noted a 25% increase in anxiety and depression in 2022 due to these factors. Therefore, a key takeaway from the study is that a pandemic impacts the mental well-being of the entire population - not just those who got COVID.
Among those who had prior infection in the study, one out of six people (16.5%) said that their current physical health was worse than before the pandemic. For those without prior infection, the corresponding percentage was 10.9%.
Although symptoms lasting over a year are common, the study also reveals that Long COVID resolves in a significant number of cases. Accordingly, household pulse surveys in the U.S. indicate that the percentage of people currently experiencing Long COVID has remained steady, with 10% of adults with prior COVID-19 (equivalent to 7% of all adults) still affected by it.
Studies from India show that Long COVID is less common following Omicron infection compared to previous variants. A study from AIIMS Bhubaneswarfound that 8.2% of individuals developed long-term symptoms following Omicron infection, compared to 29.2% with the Delta variant. They found that the risk of Long COVID is heightened with repeated infections.
A limitation of the current study is that it did not measure antibodies at subsequent time points, potentially missing individuals who were infected afterward. They could have incorrectly classified people as uninfected controls. The study also excluded people who were not healthy enough to donate blood, focusing on those with relatively mild outcomes.
(RajeevJayadevanisco-chairmanof the National IMA COVID task Force)
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Areview of death certificates of previously healthy Oregon residents aged 16 to 30 years who died of cardiac or undetermined causes from June 2021 to December 2022 found no link between mRNA COVID-19 vaccination and sudden cardiac death.
For the study, published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Oregon Health Authority researchers examined 1,292 death certificates and immunization data for documentation of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination within 100 days of death. A total of 925 males (72%) and 367 (28%) females in the 16- to 30-year age-group died during the study period.
Healthy Oregonians aged 16 and older became eligible for COVID-19 vaccination on April 19, 2021.
"COVID-19 vaccination has been associated with myocarditis in adolescents and young adults, and concerns have been raised about possible vaccine-related cardiac fatalities in this age group," the researchers wrote. "In April 2021, cases of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among young male vaccine recipients, were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System."
Among 1,292 identified deaths, COVID-19 was cited as the cause of death on 30 certificates. For 101 others, a cardiac cause of death couldn't be ruled out; of them, immunization data were available for 88, and 3 of them had received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose within 100 days of death.
Of 40 deaths among mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients, 3 occurred within100 days of receipt. Two of these deaths were attributed to chronic illnesses, and no cause was listed for one. No certificate listed vaccination as the cause of death.
A total of 17 deaths among males (2%) were attributed to COVID-19. Death certificates cited noncardiac causes or other conditions for 842 (91%). Among the remaining 66 males (7%), a cardiac cause of death could not be excluded. Of these 66, vaccination records were available for 58 (88%), and receipt of at least one mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose was documented for 24 (41%).
Of the 24 male vaccine recipients, 2 (8%) died within 100 days of vaccination. The cause of the first death was listed as natural 21 days after vaccination. The immediate cause of death was congestive heart failure attributed to high blood pressure; other significant conditions were morbid obesity, type 2 diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea.
The second decedent had received a vaccine dose 45 days before death, which was categorized as "undetermined natural cause." Toxicology results were negative for alcohol, cannabinoids, methamphetamine, and opiates and positive for aripiprazole, ritalinic acid, and trazodone. Follow-up with the medical examiner couldn't confirm nor exclude a vaccine-associated adverse event as the cause.
These data do not support an association between receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons.
Thirteen of the 367 female deaths (4%) were attributed to COVID-19, and 319 (87%) cited noncardiac causes. Among the remaining 35 female decedents (10%), vaccination records were available for 30 (86%), 16 (53%) of whom had received at least one mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Only one of these deaths occurred within 100 days of vaccination, at 4 days post-vaccination. The cause of death was listed as natural, and the immediate cause was undetermined, listing chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia attributed to mitral stenosis as a contributing factor.
"These data do not support an association between receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons," the study authors wrote. "COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all persons aged 6 months to prevent COVID-19 and complications, including death."
"Although the rate was higher during the pandemic year of 2021, myocarditis remained an infrequent cause of death among persons in this age group," they wrote. "Detection of a small difference in mortality rate from myocarditis would require a larger sample size."
The authors noted that electronic health records from 40 US healthcare systems from January 2021 to January 2022 revealed that the risk of cardiac complications was significantly higher after COVID-19 infection than after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination among people aged 5 years and older.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics show background death rates from cardiac causes in Oregonians aged 15 to 34 years of 2.9 and 4.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2019 and 2021, respectively. During the first 2 years of US COVID-19 vaccine availability, vaccination prevented roughly 18.5 million hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths, the researchers said.
A new study from the CDC states that there is no data to support an association between the COVID vaccines and sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons
The COVID-19 vaccines are not linked to cardiac death or deadly heart problems in young adults, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds.
The study, published April 11, analyzed nearly 1,300 death certificates of Oregon residents aged 16 to 30 who suffered sudden cardiac death between June 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. Authors focused their research on those who received the COVID vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna and died within 100 days of receiving their shots. Only 40 deaths occurred in that window.
Of the 40, two of those deaths were attributed to underlying illness and the third had an undetermined cause of death. None of the death certificates attributed the deaths to the vaccine.
Additionally, the deaths of 30 Oregon residents in that age group and during that time frame were due to COVID-19. However, the majority of these residents were not vaccinated.
The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons, the CDC said in the report.
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Dr. Paul Cieslak, co-author of the CDC study, told NBC News that the analysis began following the alarming comments made about the COVID vaccine when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game in January 2023. The athlete, 26, was resuscitated on the field and later recovered.
When Damar Hamlin went down, immediately comments were getting made that it was possibly vaccine-related, Cieslak, medical director of communicable diseases and immunizations at Oregon Health Authoritys public health division, told the outlet. This is kind of what we were trying to address with this analysis.
Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Childrens Hospital, added that no vaccine has ever been conclusively linked to sudden cardiac death.
Although the COVID vaccine has been linked to a small risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, he explained that it is typically mild and most people fully recover in a few days.
This adds to evidence that people dont drop dead from getting their mRNA Covid vaccines, Levy told the outlet.
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