The CDC and FDA announced on Friday that their surveillance system flagged a possible link between the new Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent Covid-19 vaccine and strokes in people aged 65 and over, but said they were continuing to recommend the shots.
It's a little misleading to only copy that paragraph.
Slightly further below they also say:
> “Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal … represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public, as we have in the past, when one of our safety monitoring systems detects a signal,” the statement said.
Probably they found some slight correlation but need to confirm causality, and it's hard because older people are likely on other drugs that increase stroke risk in general.
Unless I'm missing something it seems like continuing to recommend it but investigating sounds appropriate (when weighed against the risk of getting covid)?
Also I'm assuming the surveillance is the FDA Sentinel initiative?
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 21.1 ms ] threadSlightly further below they also say:
> “Although the totality of the data currently suggests that it is very unlikely that the signal … represents a true clinical risk, we believe it is important to share this information with the public, as we have in the past, when one of our safety monitoring systems detects a signal,” the statement said.
Probably they found some slight correlation but need to confirm causality, and it's hard because older people are likely on other drugs that increase stroke risk in general.
Unless I'm missing something it seems like continuing to recommend it but investigating sounds appropriate (when weighed against the risk of getting covid)?
Also I'm assuming the surveillance is the FDA Sentinel initiative?