No Increased Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccine – Medscape

TOPLINE:

Receipt of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine was not associated with an increased stroke risk in the first 6 weeks after vaccination with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, a new study of Medicare beneficiaries showed.

"The clinical significance of the risk of stroke after vaccination must be carefully considered together with the significant benefits of receiving an influenza vaccination," the authors wrote. "Because the framework of the current self-controlled case series study does not compare the populations who were vaccinated vs those who were unvaccinated, it does not account for the reduced rate of severe influenza after vaccination. More studies are needed to better understand the association between high-dose or adjuvanted influenza vaccination and stroke."

Yun Lu, PhD, of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, was the lead and corresponding author of the study. It was published online on March 19 in JAMA.

Some stroke cases may have been missed or misclassified. Additionally, the study included only vaccinated individuals a population considered to have health-seeking behaviors which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The study was conducted using COVID-19 bivalent vaccines, which are no longer available.

This work was funded by the US Food and Drug Administration through an interagency agreement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Lu reported no relevant financial relationships. The other authors' disclosures are listed in the original paper.

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No Increased Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccine - Medscape