A man receives a dose of Pfizer COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a health center in Jakarta, Indonesia on Feb 1, 2023. New research suggests that vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2. (PHOTO / AFP)
LOS ANGELES – New research suggests that vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is the first to examine both full and partial vaccination and the link to major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in the United States.
The study included 1,934,294 patients, 217,843 of whom received mRNA vaccine formulations by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or viral vector technology by Johnson & Johnson
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used the US National COVID Cohort Collaborative database. The study included 1,934,294 patients, 217,843 of whom received mRNA vaccine formulations by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or viral vector technology by Johnson & Johnson.
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"We sought to clarify the impact of previous vaccination on cardiovascular events among people who develop COVID-19 and found that, particularly among those with comorbidities, such as previous MACE, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, liver disease, and obesity, there is an association with a lower risk of complications," said senior author Girish N. Nadkarni, professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
"While we cannot attribute causality, it is supportive evidence that vaccination may have beneficial effects on a variety of post-COVID-19 complications," he said.
XBB.1.5 jumps to over 80 percent in US
The highly transmissible Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 now accounts for over 80 percent of new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States, according to the latest estimates of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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XBB.1.5 is estimated to account for 80.2 percent of US COVID-19 cases in the week ending Feb 18, up from 73 percent in the week prior, according to the CDC.
While XBB.1.5 is spreading easier, scientists said it does not seem to cause more severe disease.