COVID-19 vaccine

COVID 19 pandemic

Vaccination status

How do these vaccines work?

Effectiveness

Booster

Ioannou2022effectiveness examines the effectiveness of a third mRNA vaccine dose (booster) against the Omicron variant and showed that the booster was effective, especially against death.

Side effects

Concerns about blood clotting

The curious case of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine

She points to the story of the first vaccine for Lyme disease, developed by SmithKline Beecham in the late 1990s. The clinical trials for the vaccine showed that arthritis occurred at similar rates in both the vaccine and placebo groups. But media reports and suits by plaintiff’s lawyers led to fears among members of the public. Even after a panel of outside advisers to the FDA voted that the vaccine’s benefits outweighed its risks, sales fell so low that the company withdrew the vaccine from the market.

Around mid-March 2021, Germany stopped the vaccination of AstraZeneca’s vaccine due to the concern about rare sinus venous thrombosis.

It doesn’t seem to be a crazy conspiracy, but potentially due to other reasons (other drugs, multiple hypothesis testing). Also, it seems much more prevalent in Western Europe.

Pfizer and Moderna may have a similar potential side effect (not confirmed): Lee2021thrombocytopenia

There is also a claim of a potential mechanism that links vaccine to the disease although it has not been confirmed yet: AstraZeneca: German team discovers thrombosis trigger

Myocarditis

It has been reported that mRNA vaccines may cause mild Myocarditis in the younger, male population.

Menstruation

COVID-19 infection is also known to cause unusual Menstruation I believe.

Reproductive system

Abbasi2022widespread discusses the misinformation about infertility.

Barda2022impact reported an increased sperm count. 2021sperm shows a significant increase in sperm count and speculated that it may be due to more abstinence from vaccination. Safrai2022BNT162b2 reported no significant change.

Sudden death

Some argues the sudden cardiac arrest of athelets as evidence of the vaccine’s side effect. However, it is a well-known phenomenon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_cardiac_death_of_athletes

In the United States approximately 8 to 10 deaths per year can be attributed to sudden cardiac death in NCAA with overall rate of 1 per 43,000.1

Equity

Some people who spread anti-vaccination propaganda

It has been argued that mere 12 people spread the majority of misinformation. (Guardian article and Report)

Vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine-related beliefs

Vaccine communication strategies

Partisan hesitancy

There has been a strong partisan divide regarding vaccination: https://twitter.com/charles_gaba/status/1496199822327562247

Fox News has been spreading a lot of doubts about vaccination although the company imposed a sort-of vaccine pass internally.

Spillover to other vaccines

Trujillo2022covid 19 examines spillover effects to other vaccines.

Vaccination strategy

Mandate

Age

Because the fatality rate highly depends on the age, the vaccination has been targeted towards older population. Lavine2021vaccinating.

News media

Korea

To read

  1. Asif, Irfan M.; Harmon, Kimberly G. (2017-02-01). “Incidence and Etiology of Sudden Cardiac Death: New Updates for Athletic Departments”. Sports Health. 9 (3): 268–279. doi:10.1177/1941738117694153. ISSN 1941-7381. PMC 5435153. PMID 28452637; Harmon, Kimberly G.; Asif, Irfan M.; Maleszewski, Joseph J.; Owens, David S.; Prutkin, Jordan M.; Salerno, Jack C.; Zigman, Monica L.; Ellenbogen, Rachel; Rao, Ashwin; Ackerman, Michael J.; Drezner, Jonathan A. (2015-07-07). “Incidence, Etiology, and Comparative Frequency of Sudden Cardiac Death in NCAA Athletes: A Decade in Review”. Circulation. 132 (1): 10–19. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.115.015431. ISSN 0009-7322. PMC 4496313. PMID 25977310. ↩