1y ago

Two very rare Covid vaccine side-effects detected in global study of 99 million

www.theguardian.com

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.

70 comments

Cue 20 million people claiming this happened to several people they know.
- See, my cousin's uncle in law's boss's ex wife's nephew's tailor's butcher's 2nd cousin thrice removed's weed dealer totally had this
- If my mother hears about this she's going to start screaming about blood clots again.
  
  Incidence of thrombosis was much higher in people who contracted COVID, mind you.
- On this note. It has happened to me, I still tell people to take it. Just not astrazenica one (I have a support group and it seems to be 90% Astrazenica) Take pfizer pls. My case is extremely extremity rare, and I was paid out by the government for it so it could be worse.
  
  Great. Now I'm one of the assholes who knows someone. Lol. Seriously, hope things are alright now.
  
  Could you share what happened to you and your support group members? Just curious! If you don't want to, no worries.
- Or literally any famous person that dies.
  
  Except Herman Cain.
- They will all find the 6th degreee separated person and they’ll all claim they know the person and that one person will represent 3 million people.
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.
- 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...
  
  Precisely. Statistically, the largest risk I took when I got the vaccine was driving to the vaccination location itself that day.
- Regarding mass graves:
  New York:
  https://time.com/5913151/hart-island-covid/
  Peru:
  https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/12/04/1060167105/a-mass-covid-grave-in-peru-has-left-families-bereft-and-fighting-for-reburial
  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
  https://www.reuters.com/world/india/mass-cremations-begin-indias-capital-faces-deluge-covid-19-deaths-2021-04-23/
  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.
  
  trucks full of bodies
  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bodies-750-covid-19-victims-new-york-city-remain-refrigerated-n1266762
  
  In the end, as usual, the truth seems to be somewhere in the middle.
  How?
  
  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.
  
  CaptMoron
  
  Since there's no other way of asking mods a question, could one of you please explain how, exactly, this post was "misinformation"?
For anyone who doesn’t want to read the whole thing or misunderstood the heading. Here’s all you need to know
confirmed how rare known vaccine complications are, with researchers confirming that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines still “vastly outweigh the risks”.
[…]
extremely small risk of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis of 0.78 cases for every million doses, and 1.82 cases per million doses for transverse myelitis.
- Without reading the article, there’s also a very relevant XKCD for this type of thing. They may well have controlled for it but it can be tough.
  https://xkcd.com/882/
According to the conspiracy people on LinkedIn hundreds of millions of vaccinated people are already dead. I’ve had like four so I probably only have minutes to live.
Possibly I’m safe due to being in Australia, a country that doesn’t exist.
- I had family members who told me the vaccine was going to kill me and various other stuff they heard from Fox News and similar.
  They all caught COVID at a party in 2021 and died. Seriously. It's awful what all this conspiracy crap is doing to people. It costs lives and affects everyone around them.
- It's troubling. The vaccine is obviously a bigger killer than covid ever was. The fact is 100% of all vaccine recipients will die within 1-90 years.
  
  The kids would like a word with you.
- I've had 6. I'm speaking to you from the grave. Congratulations, you're a medium.
- Are you sure Austria doesn't exist? I've definitely heard of it.
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.
  
  Yeah the last real conversation I had with my brother was a couple years ago. It ended after I told him he's a danger to himself and his kids. We've interacted in passing a couple times like when I visit other family but it is bad vibes all around
- “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity”
  My brother should be your brother’s brother
Wording in that headline, SUCKS.
Leading with "side effects" rather than the size/strength of the study and many readers will just ignore "very rare".
Is this the largest study of its kind? If so, lead with that as well. Outlet is purposefully flirting with this line to get clicks from both the rational and batshit sides of this "argument".
- Yep this is just more fuel for antivax idiots. I'm still waiting to drop dead from the vaccine...as a few of the antivax people I have met tell me I will.
  
  Being the petty person I can be at times, someone on ye olde reddit posted a list of people who "died from the vaccine" and listed... 23 names I think it was? I looked up all the information I could on all 23 and concluded 2 of them I couldn't definitively say what their cause of death was, but not a single one pointed to the vaccine (and a not-insignificant number wouldn't have even had access to the vaccine in their country at the time they supposedly died from it.)
  I know it didn't change their mind because hand wave reasons
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.)
  
  There's no exposure to the virus with RNA vaccines.
  
  Giving up life was an option, and they took the vaccine to not take that option.
  Covid is and was contagious enough they were pretty much guaranteed to be exposed.
Your odds of dying while swimming, running, or jogging are about the same (1 in a million). And similar to those activities, the risk exists, but the benefits vastly outweigh the risks so it's kind of irrelevant.
Meanwhile I had 4 different types of shots, 3 of them Chinese and no side effects
Study concluded that most people are fucking stupid and you shouldn't listen to them, especially when it comes to assessing risk using statistical methods.
- I noticed they didn't explain things to my liking. Like why are they blaming the vaccine and not just side effects of long COVID? I was hoping they would break down the study more instead of just telling me what they think it means.
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 (TM) 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 (TM) 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.
- 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.
  
  Yes, but you probably didn't live for a long time within walking distance of main and hasting in Vancouver. It's why I stressed geography a bit.
- 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.
- 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.

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