Category: Vaccine

The husband of an Oxford University executive who died after taking the AstraZeneca jab is calling on the institution to admit its culpability in her death.

Nicola Weideling, 45, a senior manager at Oxford University, died in hospital on May 15, 2021, while being treated for blood clots caused by the Covid vaccine - developed by her university alongside AstraZeneca.

Just days earlier, Mrs Wiedeling attempted to put on a brave face as she posted 'fun fact' about her illness and told people not to worry about her, The Telegraph reports.

She wrote on Instagram: 'I am now a vaccine statistic! My neck pain and back pain over the last week or so was in fact masking... a blood clot (or two, they are still doing scans) resulting from my AZ vaccine a few weeks ago

'But the good news is that I have a correct diagnosis and am in the right place to get better. God bless the NHS!! And everyone. I would still recommend the AZ vaccine. I am an anomaly! An absolute outlier statistically.'

Tragically, Mrs Wiedeling was later struck down with a catastrophic bleed to the brain and her life support was switched off.

The adverse reaction suffered by Mrs Wiedeling is understood to be extremely rare, with VITT affecting around one in 50,000 people under the age of 50 who received the AstraZeneca jab.

Her widower Kurt Wiedeling, 54, has now called on Oxford University to accept responsibility for its part in his wife's death.

Since rolling out the AstraZeneca jab, the university has received 143million in royalties for its role developing the vaccine.

Mr Wiedeling believes some of these proceeds should be shared with the bereft families suing AstraZeneca over deaths and serious health episodes caused by the jab.

After Mrs Wiedeling's death, the university paid out a 1,000 bonus to 13,000 staff but a source denied this money was linked to AstraZeneca royalties.

Ironically, Mrs Wiedeling, who was a senior marketing executive for the university's publishing department, would have been entitled the bonus.

But she was never able to claim the sum as the vaccine killed her.

An inquest concluded that Mrs Wiedeling died ofVaccine-induced Immune Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis, or VITT, a 'rare bur recognised' complication of the vaccine.

British health chiefs recommended all under-40s are offered an alternative to AstraZeneca's vaccine because of blood clot fears.

Cambridge academics estimated around 1.9 in every 100,000 twenty-somethings given AstraZeneca's jab would suffer serious blood clots alongside abnormally low platelet levels (thrombocytopenia) the specific disorder linked to the jab. For thirty-somethings the figure was 1.5.

They compared that against the average number of Covid intensive care admissions that would be prevented by giving that cohort the jab. And they then analysed the risk/benefit ratio in different scenarios, based entirely on how widespread the disease was at the time.

For example, only 0.2 ICU admissions would be prevented for every 100,000 twenty-somethings given the jab at prevalence levels seen in April (fewer than 30,000 infections per week). For adults in their thirties, the figure was around 0.8.

It showed, however, the benefits of giving AstraZeneca's vaccine to 40-49 year olds outweighed the potential risk (1.7 prevented ICU admissions per 100,000 people compared to 1.2 blood clots).

But the decision to recommend under-40s are offered Pfizer or Moderna's jab instead was basically only taken because the outbreak was squashed to extremely low levels, as well as the fact younger people are known to face tiny odds of falling seriously ill with coronavirus.

For older adults, who the disease poses a much greater threat to, the benefits of vaccination are clear, regulators insist. Jabs have already saved around 13,000 lives in England, top scientists believe.

However, because there were so few blood clots, it made it impossible for No10's vaccine advisory panel to give an exact age cut-off. Instead, they were only able to analyse figures by decade.

The first clots to alarm people were ones appearing in veins near the brains of younger adults in a condition called CSVT (cerebral sinus venous thrombosis).

Since that, however, people have developed clots in other parts of their bodies and they are usually linked to low numbers of platelets, which is unusual because platelets are usually used by the immune system to build the clots.

In most cases people recover fully and the blockages are generally easy to treat if spotted early, but they can trigger strokes or heart or lung problems if unnoticed.

Symptoms depend entirely on where the clot is. Clots in major arteries in the abdomen can cause persistent stomach pain, and ones in the leg can cause swelling of the limbs.

Mr Wiedeling described his wife, who he was with for 25 years, as 'very, very generous' and added she was 'committed to doing the right thing and helping others'.

He said she received her first vaccine jab on April 21, 2021, when AstraZeneca already knew about the risk of blood clots.

Regulators were also aware of the potential complications and pushed against its use for the under 30s, who were offered Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead. In May, under-40s were also added to this category.

Mrs Wiedeling is reported to have begun feeling unwell about a week after her first jab, feeling a pain in her neck.

A GP suggested this was a muscle spasm but by May 8, her husband became seriously concerned by her severe headache and unexplained bruises on her arms.

Mr Wiedeling, who at the time worked for the Health Research Authority, which oversees medical trials, was aware of the possible side effects of AstraZeneca vaccine and called an ambulance.

His wife was transported to Winchester Hospital where doctors diagnosed her with VITT.

She was then transferred to a specialist neurological unit at Southampton General Hospital.

While there on May 9, she made her Instagram posts and told followers how she expected to be in hospital for at least a week while being given blood thinners and steroids.

The next day, she remained upbeat and posted again on Instagram, describing her 'highlights of the day - which included having one of her cannulas removed.

She also posted her 'lowlights', namely a coughing fit after her drink went down the wrong way, which she said led to 'an absolutely blinding headache all day'.

Doctors also found a second clot in her lung and a suspected clot in her stomach, but Mrs Wiedeling attempted to reassure friends it 'could be worse I suppose!'

The following day, on May 11, Mrs Wiedeling suffered a stroke from which she was unable to recover. Her husband signed consent forms for her heart and kidneys to be donated to three other patients and her ventilation was switched off on May 15.

Mr Wiedeling, who has since moved to Manchester, added: 'I said my goodbyes on Saturday afternoon. I was still in shock.

'The last thing I did for Nicola was ensure her wishes as an organ donor were fulfilled. For me that was finding a genuine ray of light in it all. There is comfort in that.'

Sources at Oxford University told the Telegraph:'Any royalties made from the vaccine are reinvested back into medical research.'

Oxford University has been approached for comment.

AstraZeneca is staunchly defending two cases in the High Court brought by VITT victims. The drug firm does not accept liability and rejects the claimants' assertion the vaccine is 'defective'.

The AstraZeneca jab is thought to have saved over six million lives worldwide in over 180 countries in the first year of its rollout.

40 further cases against AstraZeneca are expected to be brought to the High Court next month, including a claim by Mr Wiedeling, who has receiveda 120,000 payment from the Government under its Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme

Speaking of his wife, he added. 'I miss her every day. I will never get over this.'

A fundraising campaign has been set up help families bringing legal actionagainst AstraZeneca.

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'I'm now a vaccine statistic! My back pain over the last week was in fact masking...a blood clot': Tragic last - Daily Mail

As cancer researchers expand the frontiers of their understanding of the basic science of cancer, biotech companies are using what they've already learned to mobilize the human immune system against cancer.

One of the most exciting developments are cancer vaccines. Scientists are using artificial intelligence to identify mutations in cancerous tumors that the immune system can recognize, then creating personalized vaccines designed to prime a patient's immune system to hunt them down and destroy them.

In 2017, Moderna, in partnership with pharmaceutical giant Merck, announced plans to start human trials with a personalized vaccine that targets solid tumors. To make a specific vaccine for each patient, they start by sequencing the DNA of the patient's healthy cells and cancerous ones. By comparing the two, they identify hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of mutations in the cancer cells. Then they use AI to choose 34 mutations in each patient most likely to elicit a strong response from the immune system. To train the algorithms, the companies have partnered with university medical centers to gain access to biopsy samples.

AI also takes in basic immunology principles about which of the characteristics of proteins and amino acids are most easily detected by the body's immune cells.

Based on this information, the company then creates a personalized RNA vaccine which, when injected into a patient, triggers a major response, causing the body to churn out an army of immune cells specifically designed to seek out and attack cells expressing any of the 34 proteins. RNA vaccines, which were used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, introduce instructions into cells that cause them to produce a specific protein associated with a virus or a tumor (but not the virus or tumor itself). The vaccine causes the body to produce enough of the protein that the immune system is likely to detect it, identify it as foreign and begin produce immune cells designed to seek it out and destroy it.

The company's approach is based on a "deep belief that the immune system can defeat cancer," Stphane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, tells Newsweek. That belief stems from a simple fact: In healthy individuals, the immune system routinely kills cancer cells before they become tumors. That is why, he says, it makes more sense to design treatments based on the genetic signature of the cancer being targeted than the traditional approach of targeting cancer based on which part of the body it is found in.

"What we know today that we didn't know 20 years ago is that cancer is always a disease of the DNAit's caused by mutations," he says. "People used to think about cancer as a disease described by which organ it was presenting in. But a description of the organ where you have a mass doesn't tell you anything about the mechanism that has driven this cancer and what genes are driving this cancer and the spread and the growth of this cancer."

In June, Moderna and Merck reported that roughly 68 percent of patients with stage 3 and 4 melanomas responded positively to the vaccines; 32 percent either saw their cancer continue to spread after treatment or died. The prognosis will also improve, he says, as scientists learn more.

"We don't know yet why the vaccine works on some people and not some others," he says. "There is so much we still don't know about the immune system. But I'm quite optimistic. almost every week there's a new paper or new insight that is helping the field."

Genentech, a San Franciscobased biotech company, is also developing a vaccine designed to attack individual tumors. It has partnered with BioNTech, which like Moderna also gained global recognition for its role in creating mRNa vaccines during the pandemic.

In May, Ira Mellman, Genentech's vice president of cancer immunology, and his collaborators published a study in the journal Nature detailing the effect of their vaccine on 16 people with one of the most common, and deadliest, types of pancreatic cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of about 12 per-cent. The vaccines activated T cells capable of recognizing the pancreatic cancer in half the patients. A year and a half after treatment, all those patients remained cancer free; one patient's T cells, produced by the vaccine, appear to have eliminated tumor cells that had spread to the liver. By contrast, for those eight patients whose immune systems did not respond to the vaccine, their cancer returned within just over a year on average. Last month, a phase II clinical trial began enrolling the first of 260 patients at nearly 80 sites around the world. Those numbers are expected to continue to improve in the years ahead.

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A Cancer Vaccine? Scientists are Working on It - Newsweek

Coronavirus By IANS 5 hours ago TWC India

A child receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Decreasing the widely used COVID-19 booster vaccine dose produces a similar immune response in adults as compared to a full dose with fewer side effects, a new study has found.

The study, published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific, found that a half dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccine produced a non-inferior immune response to a full dose in Mongolian adults who previously had AstraZeneca or Sinopharm COVID-19 shots.

However, it found that half-dose boosting may be less effective in adults primed with the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.

The research, led by Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and the National Centre for Communicable Diseases in Mongolia, involved 601 participants over 18 years old and produced reports on the initial responses seen 28 days after vaccination.

"Fractional dosing may improve COVID-19 booster acceptability and uptake and reduce the per-dose cost of COVID-19 booster programmes. Policymakers and immunisation advisory committees can draw upon this data to make flexible boosting schedules decisions," MCRI Professor Kim Mulholland said.

The study found that half-dose boosted participants reported fewer local reactions than those receiving full doses (60 per cent versus 72 per cent), including less pain and tenderness. They also reported fewer systemic reactions (25 per cent versus 32 per cent), including less fevers, vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches.

"This Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)-funded study has generated valuable data about combinations of vaccines that have been widely distributed through COVAX, which will help to inform future booster strategies in countries in the global south. Fractional dosing can contribute to equitable access by making vaccination more acceptable and less costly," said Dr Melanie Saville, Executive Director of R&D at CEPI.

**

The above article has been published from a wire agency with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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Decreasing the Prescribed Dose of COVID-19 Boosters Delivers Similar Immune Response: Study | Weather.com - The Weather Channel

24 November 2023

The misconduct report found Ms Morris' behaviour fell "far short" of "what is expected of a registered nurse"

A nurse has been struck off after giving Covid-19 vaccinations to friends and family of colleagues, even though they were not eligible at the time.

Diana Morris was a nurse at Dockham Surgery in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, during the pandemic.

A disciplinary found the experienced nurse failed to check the patients' medical records and did not inform the surgery of what was happening.

She was issued a striking-off order and interim suspension order for 18 months.

Ms Morris had told the recipients the doses were left over and would be thrown away if not used.

At the time, only those who were over 70 and front line workers were eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations, but Ms Morris administered jabs, and assisted a colleague to administer them, to people who were not eligible.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council heard the nurse also failed to keep records of the vaccinations and did not properly check patients' medical records before vaccinating them, putting them at risk.

Ms Morris, who was based at Dockham Surgery in Cinderford Medical Centre, said she did not falsify documents

On 11 February 2021 Ms Morris assisted a healthcare assistant in administering jabs to 11 ineligible patients after normal practice hours at her colleague's house.

Ms Morris was not present while they were administered.

In one example, the misconduct investigation found Ms Morris contacted an employee of the surgery to ask if her husband and son would like to receive the vaccine.

Her colleague queried whether this would be ok, but during the investigation Ms Morris said that she thought they were allowed to do this with leftover doses.

However, it was found she sent a list of patients she had vaccinated that day, omitting the 11 patients who were ineligible.

She also vaccinated her husband who was not registered with the surgery and gave another patient a second vaccine just a few weeks after his first, despite guidance that the two doses should be administered 12 weeks apart.

The report, released earlier this month, states: "By administering Covid-19 vaccines without preliminary checks of patients' medical records, carrying out patients' risk assessments and failing to record administration of Covid-19 vaccine and to report the vaccinations to patients' registered practices, Ms Morris put 17 patients at the risk of harm."

The investigation also found one patient who received an Oxford AstraZenaca vaccine from Ms Morris was high risk for this type of vaccine.

Had this patient been vaccinated "when their cohort was eligible", this information would have been available, and they would not have been exposed to the risk of receiving a vaccine "which was potentially dangerous for them", said the report.

Due to Ms Morris' "poor record keeping", a number of patients were also unable to obtain "Covid Passports" as they could not prove they had received the required amount of vaccines.

In an email to the NMC in January 2022, Ms Morris said: "I worked so hard throughout the pandemic, going to do home visits and see patients within the surgery too, there was no let up and little support - it was mentally draining.

"I have an impeccable record prior to this and have always prided myself on being an excellent nurse with a very caring and compassionate nature, and would certainly never knowingly put any patent at risk."

Ms Morris said was struggling mentally as she felt "ruined" and that she had "lost everything", including her home, job and reputation.

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Covid nurse gave jabs to ineligible friends of colleagues - BBC.com

Nicola Weideling with her husband Kurt (Image: Family/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A grieving husband has called on Oxford University to admit responsibility for the death of his wife who died after getting an AstraZeneca Covid jab.

Two years ago, Kurt Weideling lost his wife Nicola Weideling,45, a senior manager at Oxford University, who suffered a catastrophic bleed on the brain that killed her.

Mrs Weideling was being treated for blood clots caused by the Covid vaccine developed by Oxford in conjunction with AstraZeneca, While laying on the social bed, Nicola told her friends on social media not to worry about her.

She posted: Fun fact. I am now a vaccine statistic! My neck pain and back pain over the last week or so was in fact masking ... a blood clot (or two, they are still doing scans) resulting from my AZ vaccine a few weeks ago

But the good news is that I have a correct diagnosis and am in the right place to get better. God bless the NHS!! And everyone. I would still recommend the AZ vaccine. I am an anomaly! An absolute outlier statistically.

Two days after that post, she died. Two years on, her husband is fighting to get justice for his wifes life.

The university has received 143 million in royalties for its role in the development of the vaccine. Mr Weideling, 54, said some of that money should now be distributed to the grieving families and victims suing AstraZeneca for deaths and serious injuries caused by the Covid jab, reported The Telegraph.

A coroner ruled that she had died of a rare but recognised complication of the vaccination, known as Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis, or VITT.

He told the publication: Realistically some of that 143 million should have gone to victims. Some recognition for what happened would have been appropriate. That money should have been spent on the victims of VITT.

He shared his wifes final posts on Instagram with The Telegraph to show the kind of person she was committed to doing the right thing and helping others.

She was, he said, very very generous. The university has given a sizeable amount to its 13,000 staff in the form of a 1,000 bonus. Nicola, who was a senior marketing executive at Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the university, would have been entitled to it.

He shared his wifes final posts on Instagram with The Telegraph to show the kind of person she was committed to doing the right thing and helping others. She was, he said, very very generous.

Mrs Weideling had her first jab on April 21 2021, at a time when the risk from blood clots was already known to AstraZeneca and to regulators, who had advised against its use for the under-30s, who would be offered the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead. In May, that would be extended to the under-40s.

A week after that she started to feel a pain in her neck which was later dismissed as a muscle spasm by her GP in Winchester. But by May 8, her husband started to feel worried.

He said: Nicola had a really bad headache and some unusual bruises on her arms. Mr Weideling was working for the Health Research Authority, the body that oversees medical trials and was aware of the possible side effects. He immediately called in the ambulance.

She was taken to hospital in Winchester, where she was diagnosed with VITT, and from there to Southampton General Hospital, with its specialist neurological unit.

Oxford Universitys accounts for 2021/22 show that it received 143.1 million in royalties on the sale of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The university was then obliged to pass on 67 million to third parties for use of vaccine technology.

Oxford declined to comment to the publication. It said compensation for the vaccine was an issue for AstraZeneca and for the Government, which promised at the outset of the race to develop a Covid jab that it would underwrite any legal claims.

The adverse reaction is extremely rare, with VITT affecting about one in 50,000 people under the age of 50 who received the AZ jab. AstraZeneca is being sued in the High Court by two VITT victims, cases it is strongly contesting. The drugs company denies any liability and insists the vaccine is not defective, as claimed in the legal actions.

More than two years on from his wifes death, he is trying to rebuild his life. He received a 120,000 payment from the Government under its Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in recognition that the jab killed his wife, but the sum is not recompense for both the tragedy he has gone through and the lost earnings that contributed to their incomes.

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Oxford University is reaping royalties from AstraZeneca Covid vaccine that killed my wife - Express

London: Long Covid is less likely among the vaccinated before infections, but among those unvaccinated, the risk is four times more, a study revealed. The study published by The BMJ showed that receiving at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine before the first infection is strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing long Covid. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, said their results "highlight the importance of primary vaccination against COVID-19 to reduce the burden of post-Covid conditions in the population".

The team investigated the effectiveness of primary Covid vaccination (the first two doses and the first booster dose within the recommended schedule) against Long Covid conditions in 589,722 adults (aged 18 and over). Individuals were followed from a first Covid infection until a diagnosis of Long Covid condition, vaccination, reinfection, death, emigration or end of follow-up whichever came first. The average follow-up was 129 days in the total study population (vaccinated: 197 days, not vaccinated: 112 days).

Of the 299,692 vaccinated individuals with Covid, 1,201 were diagnosed with Long Covid during follow-up, compared with 4,118 of 290,030 unvaccinated individuals. Those who received one or more Covid vaccines before the first infection were 58 per cent less likely to receive a diagnosis of post-Covid condition than unvaccinated individuals.

And vaccine effectiveness increased with each successive dose before infection (a dose-response effect). This is an observational study, which provides less conclusive evidence of causality, and the researchers point to several limitations such as limited data on post-Covid condition symptoms and that the diagnosis code is not yet validated, the potential impact of reinfections on vaccine effectiveness, and expectations about the protective effect of vaccination.

The findings, combined with evidence from other studies, highlight the association between the immune system and the development of post-viral conditions, and underline the importance of timely vaccination during pandemics, said researchers in a linked editorial. They called for continued investigation into the evolution of long-term residual symptoms of Covid and other viral illnesses as well as steps to "improve the accuracy of recording both recovery and continued illness after infection, and in quantifying key family, social, financial, and economic outcomes".

"Such estimates are fundamental to unlocking the funding required for future research and increased investment in specialist clinical services offering treatment and rehabilitation to support patients with post-viral conditions," they said.

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Unvaccinated individuals four times more likely to suffer long Covid - Onmanorama

Short of soldiers, the US Army is recalling former soldiers who had been fired from their jobs after refusing to get jabbed by the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report in the New York Post. The army is sending letters to the ex-soldiers and urging them to apply to rejoin.

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The army retracting its earlier position comes almost a year after Congress forced the Pentagon to roll back its mandate that required all troops to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

As part of the overall Covidmandate rescission process mandated by Congress, the Army this month mailed the letters to approximately 1,900 individuals who had previously been separated, Bryce Dubee, the army spokesman was quoted as saying by the publication.

Of the 1,900 letters sent, only 19 have returned to active duty but the army was hopeful that more will return as the news spreads.

Watch |Gravitas: Will USrun out of soldiers? Army Short of 10,000 Troops | Here's Why

The former soldiers are being urged to contact the Army, Army Reserve, or National Guard recruiter. Notably, almost 8,000 soldiers were shown the door at the peak of the coronavirus crisis when they stuck to their pro-choice motto.

It isstill not clear if the re-hired soldiers will be restored to their old job profiles. Moreover, there is no clear-cut list of standards for acceptance back into the service but the Post stated that applicants will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

It was in August 2021 that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a memo, mandating the soldiers to get vaccinated. While the majority complied, a section doubted the efficacy of the newly minted vaccines and refused to follow the order.

However, the Republicans contested the decision, arguing that it would hurt the military in the long run. For 15 months, the mandate remained in force before being taken down as COVID-19 numbers dropped.

The US Army is facing a crunch in the number of personnel joining the service. The strength fell from an original485,000 in late 2021 to around 452,000 active-duty soldiers in 2023. The recruitment board of the army fell 10,000 short of its hiring goal of 65,000 in 2023 alone.

(With inputs from agencies)

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US Army recalls soldiers fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccine amid shortfall in numbers - WION

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spread across the world from late 2019 onwards, causing almost seven million deaths and over a hundred times that number of infections. Post-COVID-19 conditions (PCC) or long COVID syndromes began to be reported early in the course of the pandemic. A new study in The BMJ explores how far vaccination averted PCC.

Within a year of the onset of COVID-19, vaccines against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were rolled out in many countries, the first dose in Sweden being given in December 2020. Vaccination is credited with a reduction in the incidence and severity of acute infection, reinfection, and breakthrough infection.

However, PCC is suspected to affect millions of COVID-19 survivors. In Sweden, it affected 2% of previously infected adults. PCC typically occurs within three months of the start of acute COVID-19, may last two months or more, and cannot be accounted for by other factors.

Symptoms of PCC include fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, headaches and muscle pain, and chest pain. These have been classified into four clusters, namely, chronic fatigue-like syndrome, respiratory syndrome, chronic pain syndrome, and neurosensorial syndrome.

Earlier research suggested that being vaccinated against the virus might protect against PCC following break-through infections, but the evidence was of low certainty due to the presence of confounding factors.

The present Swedish study aimed to explore how well primary vaccination (two primary doses plus one booster dose) could avert PCC. The participants came from the Swedish Covid-19 Investigation for Future Insightsa Population Epidemiology Approach using Register Linkage (SCIFI-PEARL) project.

This included all COVID-19-positive adults on the register between the end of December 2020 and early February 2022, almost 590,000 people from the two largest regions of Sweden. Various events were recorded, including their first COVID-19 infection, movement out of the country, vaccination, reinfection, or a PCC diagnosis, until their death or until follow-up ended on November 30, 2022.

The researchers defined vaccinated individuals as those who had received one or more doses of the vaccine before becoming COVID-19-positive. They evaluated the odds of developing PCC with or without vaccination, compensating for sex, age, other illnesses, the general health of the individual, the circulating variant at the time of infection, and the socioeconomic profile of the participant.

The results indicated that at a median of 129 days of follow-up after COVID-19 was diagnosed, PCC incidence was higher among the unvaccinated vs vaccinated group. Among those who had one or more doses of vaccine before becoming infected, a total of ~300,000 people, about 0.4%, were diagnosed with PCC during follow-up. Conversely, the incidence of PCC was 1.4% among the almost equal number of unvaccinated individuals.

About 1% of the vaccinated group experienced reinfections vs 3% of the unvaccinated group. Most (60%) unvaccinated individuals were infected during the Alpha variant dominant phase, but three-quarters of vaccinated individuals were infected with the emergence of Omicron.

Despite a very low level of hospitalization following a COVID-19 infection, the odds of hospital admission were higher among the unvaccinated at 4% vs 1.5% for the vaccinated.

Further analysis showed that among the vaccinated, about a tenth took only one dose, while just over 200,000 had two doses. About 73,000 had at least three doses. Significantly more women were vaccinated, at 57% vs 44% for men, and vaccinated individuals had a median age of 42 years vs 39 years among the unvaccinated.

The longest median follow-up of 250 days before PCC was diagnosed was observed among those who had three or more doses of vaccine vs 42 days among those with only one dose. The median time to PCC diagnosis was similar overall, at ~17-18 days, for vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.

Thus, the risk of PCC was reduced by almost 60% after one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine effectiveness against PCC was thus calculated to be 58% overall. In more detail, it increased with each dose, from 21% for one dose, ~60% for two, and 73% for three doses of the vaccine.

The study indicates that COVID-19 vaccination is closely linked to a lower risk of PCC. In other words, the risk of PCC was four times higher in the unvaccinated group vs the vaccinated, though both were relatively rare at 1.4% vs 0.4%, respectively.

Earlier studies generally showed a protective effect of vaccination but with limited reliability due to the large differences between studies and low certainty of evidence. The current study excluded all unvaccinated people who subsequently received one or more vaccine doses during the period of follow-up from the original unvaccinated group to ensure rigorous methodology was preserved.

The protective effect might be explained by a lower viral load during acute infection, resulting in reduced viral persistence and, therefore less acute and long-term activation of abnormal immune responses. Earlier, these authors demonstrated a 37% risk of PCC among COVID-19 cases who required intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Such severe infections are reduced following vaccination, which is one pathway leading to a lower PCC risk.

However, other mechanisms also appear to be at work to foster vaccine-induced protection against PCC, which may occur even in those without a confirmed COVID-19 infection.

The results from this study highlight the importance of complete primary vaccination coverage against COVID-19, not only to reduce the risk of severe acute covid-19 infection but also the burden of PCC in the population.

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COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against long-term effects, study suggests - News-Medical.Net

Getting vaccinated could significantly reduce the risk of developing long Covid, with more jabs offering greater protection, according to a study.

Researchers found that people who had three or more doses of the vaccine were 73 per cent less likely to develop long Covid after an infection than those who were unvaccinated.

They also found that people were 21 per cent less likely to develop the condition after the first dose and 59 per cent less likely after the second, according to the study published in the BMJ.

The results from this study highlight the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19 not only to reduce the risk of severe infection but also the risk of long Covid, Maria Bygdell, of the University of Gothenburg, told i.

Estimates of how many people in the UKhave long Covid, defined as having symptoms for three months or longer, vary from around one to 2 million.

The most common lasting symptoms are fatigue, difficulty thinking or concentrating and joint pains.

But other persistent symptoms include a loss or change of sense of smell or taste, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, chest tightness or pain, and poor memory, according to the latest findings from Imperial College Londons REACT study.

It was already well known that vaccines reduce the risk of severe illness after a Covid infection as well as, to a lesser extent, the risk of becoming infected in the first place.

Meanwhile, previous research has suggested that jabs could also reduce the risk of long Covid which can develop from mild as well as serious cases of the virus, although less commonly so.

But these earlier studies have tended to be small, based on self-reported symptoms, which are typically less reliable, and conducted in trial conditions, researchers say.

They have also typically lumped together the different numbers of doses for each person, despite individual variations in the number of jabs.

As such, the findings of previous research have been highly variable.

By contrast, this is a large study of 589,722 adults based on real-world data and clinical diagnoses, and it splits out the benefit of each successive dose.

This makes it the most comprehensive study into the benefits of vaccines against long Covid which should go a long way to settling the matter, researchers say.

Dr Bygdell points out that the study was observational, meaning that it identified an association between vaccines and reduced long Covid risk, rather than establishing cause and effect.

As such, there may have been some other reason for the link. But the researchers are confident their findings are solid and strongly back the case for vaccinations to reduce the risk of long Covid.

A range of factors including age, sex, existing conditions, number of healthcare contacts during 2019, education level, employment status, and dominant virus variant at time of infection were also accounted for in the analysis, they say.

In a BMJ editorial about the significance of the research, Manoj Sivan, of Leeds University, said These are impressive findings It is reassuring that Covid-19 vaccines have a clear and clinically important protective effect against post-Covid-19 condition.

Dr Sivan also has a theory about the protection offered against long Covid.

He said: Vaccines activate the immune systems antibody and T-cell responses, enabling the neutralisation or destruction of [the virus], reducing the severity of infection and risk of hospital admission and death. These mechanisms could also explain the protective effect of vaccines against post-Covid-19 condition.

On the differences between this study and previous research in this area, Dr Bygdell added: A few studies have previously evaluated the potential protective effect of vaccines on long Covid. However, they have been relatively small, seldom population-based and [have] often not evaluated the effect for a different number of vaccine doses.

We have conducted a large study based on all adult residents in the two largest regions in Sweden. We have also used a clinical diagnosis of post-Covid-19 condition compared to other studies who often used self-reported symptoms after Covid-19.

Read more here:

How vaccines give you good protection against long Covid dose-by-dose - inews

Unvaccinated individuals almost four times as likely to be diagnosed than those vaccinated before first infection

Receiving at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine before the first infection is strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing post-covid-19 condition, commonly known as long covid, finds a study published by The BMJ today.

The findings, based on data for more than half a million Swedish adults, show that unvaccinated individuals were almost four times as likely to be diagnosed with long covid than those who were vaccinated before the first infection.

The researchers stress that causality cannot be directly inferred from this observational evidence, but say their results "highlight the importance of primary vaccination against covid-19 to reduce the burden of post-covid-19 condition in the population."

The effectiveness of covid-19 vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe complications of acute covid-19 are already known, but their effectiveness against long covid is less clear because most previous studies have relied on self-reported symptoms.

To address this, researchers investigated the effectiveness of primary covid-19 vaccination (the first two doses and the first booster dose within the recommended schedule) against post-covid-19 condition using data from the SCIFI-PEARL project, a register based study of the covid-19 pandemic in Sweden.

Their findings are based on 589,722 adults (aged 18 and over) from the two largest regions of Sweden with a first covid-19 infection registered between 27 December 2020 and 9 February 2022.

Individuals were followed from a first covid-19 infection until a diagnosis of post-covid-19 condition, vaccination, reinfection, death, emigration or end of follow-up (30 November 2022), whichever came first. Average follow-up was 129 days in the total study population (vaccinated: 197 days, not vaccinated: 112 days).

Individuals who had received at least one covid-19 vaccine dose before infection were considered vaccinated.

A range of factors including age, sex, existing conditions, number of healthcare contacts during 2019, education level, employment status, and dominant virus variant at time of infection were also accounted for in the analysis.

Of 299,692 vaccinated individuals with covid-19, 1,201 (0.4%) were diagnosed with post-covid-19 condition during follow-up, compared with 4,118 (1.4%) of 290,030 unvaccinated individuals.

Those who received one or more covid-19 vaccines before the first infection were 58% less likely to receive a diagnosis of post-covid-19 condition than unvaccinated individuals.

And vaccine effectiveness increased with each successive dose before infection (a dose-response effect). For example, the first dose reduced the risk of post-covid-19 condition by 21%, two doses by 59%, and three or more doses by 73%.

This is an observational study, which provides less conclusive evidence of causality, and the researchers point to several limitations such as limited data on post-covid-19 condition symptoms and that the diagnosis code is not yet validated, the potential impact of reinfections on vaccine effectiveness, and expectations about the protective effect of vaccination.

However, this was a large, well designed study based on high quality, individual level registry data with a low risk of self-reporting bias, suggesting that the results are robust.

As such, the authors conclude: "The results from this study highlight the importance of complete primary vaccination coverage against covid-19, not only to reduce the risk of severe acute covid-19 infection but also the burden of post-covid-19 condition in the population."

These findings, combined with evidence from other studies, highlight the association between the immune system and the development of post-viral conditions, and underline the importance of timely vaccination during pandemics, say researchers in a linked editorial.

They call for continued investigation into the evolution of long term residual symptoms of covid-19 and other viral illnesses as well as steps to "improve the accuracy of recording both recovery and continued illness after infection, and in quantifying key family, social, financial, and economic outcomes."

"Such estimates are fundamental to unlocking the funding required for future research and increased investment in specialist clinical services offering treatment and rehabilitation to support patients with post-viral conditions," they conclude.

Read more:

Vaccination Prior to Covid Infection Greatly Lowers Long Covid Risk - Mirage News