Deans' stroke musings: COVID-19, flu shots might raise stroke risk for older Americans: Preprint

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

COVID-19, flu shots might raise stroke risk for older Americans: Preprint

Title is misleading since the article suggests the flu shot is the likely culprit.

I'll take that risk. While the effects of flu varies, it places a substantial burden on the health of people in the United States each year. CDC estimates that flu has resulted in 9 million – 41 million illnesses, 140,000 – 710,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 – 52,000 deaths annually between 2010 and 2020.

The age-adjusted COVID-19 death rate was 61.3 per 100,000 persons. COVID-19–associated death rates were highest among males, older adults, and AI/AN persons.

COVID-19, flu shots might raise stroke risk for older Americans: Preprint

The risk of a stroke was more prevalent for older adults who received a flu and bivalent COVID-19 vaccine within six weeks of the other in fall 2022, according to a preprint of research conducted by the FDA and CMS.

Researchers evaluated the stroke risk among more than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older. They found that, between Aug. 31 and Nov. 6, 2022, those who received a bivalent COVID-19 shot and a high-dose flu vaccine had a slightly higher stroke risk than those who were only vaccinated for COVID-19.

There was not an increased risk of stroke among older adults who only received a bivalent COVID-19 shot, according to the study that is waiting on peer review.

Those who received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine saw a 20% increase in the risk of transient ischemic stroke, and those who got a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and flu shot saw a 35% increased risk.

This outcome is more likely to be tied to the influenza shot, the researchers concluded: "The observed risk of stroke in the concomitant subgroup was likely driven by influenza vaccination alone rather than concomitant administration [a COVID-19 vaccine administration]."