Categories
Publications

Surveillance of COVID-19 vaccine safety among elderly persons aged 65 years and older – Science Direct

Findings
Four outcomes met the threshold for a statistical signal following BNT162b2 vaccination including pulmonary embolism (PE; RR = 1.54), acute myocardial infarction (AMI; RR = 1.42), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC; RR = 1.91), and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP; RR = 1.44). After further evaluation, only the RR for PE still met the statistical threshold for a signal; however, the RRs for AMI, DIC, and ITP no longer did. No statistical signals were identified following vaccination with either the mRNA-1273 or Ad26 COV2.S vaccines.

Interpretation
This early warning system is the first to identify temporal associations for PE, AMI, DIC, and ITP following BNT162b2 vaccination in the elderly. Because an early warning system does not prove that the vaccines cause these outcomes, more robust epidemiologic studies with adjustment for confounding, including age and nursing home residency, are underway to further evaluate these signals. FDA strongly believes the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the potential risks of COVID-19 infection.

http://archive.today/2023.01.10-210629/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22014931

Categories
Publications

Age-stratified infection fatality rate of COVID-19 in the non-elderly population – Professor John Ioannidis, Science Direct

Highlights

∗ Across 31 systematically identified national seroprevalence studies in the pre-vaccination era, the median infection fatality rate of COVID-19 was estimated to be 0.034% for people aged 0–59 years people and 0.095% for those aged 0–69 years.

∗ The median IFR was 0.0003% at 0–19 years, 0.002% at 20–29 years, 0.011% at 30–39 years, 0.035% at 40–49 years, 0.123% at 50–59 years, and 0.506% at 60–69 years.

∗ At a global level, pre-vaccination IFR may have been as low as 0.03% and 0.07% for 0–59 and 0–69 year old people, respectively.

∗ These IFR estimates in non-elderly populations are lower than previous calculations had suggested.

https://archive.today/2022.12.30-220152/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393512201982X

Categories
Publications

Surveillance of COVID-19 vaccine safety among elderly persons aged 65 years and older

Our early warning safety system is the first to identify-four new statistical signals for modestly elevated risks (RR less than 2) of four serious outcomes of AMI, PE, DIC, and ITP following BNT162b2 vaccination. This FDA and CMS COVID-19 vaccine safety study is one of the largest studies of elderly persons aged 65 years and above including approximately 34 million doses administered to more than 17 million Medicare insured persons. Our surveillance monitoring did not detect statistical signals for the mRNA-1273and Ad26 COV2.S vaccines for any of the 14 monitored outcomes.

Analysis from The Epoch Times can be found here: Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Linked to Blood Clotting: FDA

http://archive.today/2022.12.19-065727/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22014931

Categories
Publications

Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults – Science Direct

Results
Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of 10.1 and 15.1 per 10,000 vaccinated over placebo baselines of 17.6 and 42.2 (95 % CI −0.4 to 20.6 and −3.6 to 33.8), respectively. Combined, the mRNA vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of 12.5 per 10,000 vaccinated (95 % CI 2.1 to 22.9); risk ratio 1.43 (95 % CI 1.07 to 1.92). The Pfizer trial exhibited a 36 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group; risk difference 18.0 per 10,000 vaccinated (95 % CI 1.2 to 34.9); risk ratio 1.36 (95 % CI 1.02 to 1.83). The Moderna trial exhibited a 6 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group: risk difference 7.1 per 10,000 (95 % CI –23.2 to 37.4); risk ratio 1.06 (95 % CI 0.84 to 1.33). Combined, there was a 16 % higher risk of serious adverse events in mRNA vaccine recipients: risk difference 13.2 (95 % CI −3.2 to 29.6); risk ratio 1.16 (95 % CI 0.97 to 1.39).

Discussion
The excess risk of serious adverse events found in our study points to the need for formal harm-benefit analyses, particularly those that are stratified according to risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes. These analyses will require public release of participant level datasets.

http://archive.today/2023.01.12-064142/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22010283

Categories
Publications

The epidemiological relevance of the COVID-19-vaccinated population is increasing – Science Direct

High COVID-19 vaccination rates were expected to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in populations by reducing the number of possible sources for transmission and thereby to reduce the burden of COVID-19 disease. Recent data, however, indicate that the epidemiological relevance of COVID-19 vaccinated individuals is increasing. In the UK it was described that secondary attack rates among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases (25% for vaccinated vs 23% for unvaccinated). 12 of 31 infections in fully vaccinated household contacts (39%) arose from fully vaccinated epidemiologically linked index cases. Peak viral load did not differ by vaccination status or variant type.

http://archive.today/2021.11.24-055915/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666776221002581

Categories
Publications

SARS-CoV-2 elicits robust adaptive immune responses regardless of disease severity – Science Direct

We report broad serological profiles within the cohort, detecting antibody binding to other human coronaviruses. 202(>99%) participants had SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies, with SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and spike-ACE2 receptor interaction blocking observed in 193(95%) individuals. A significant positive correlation (r=0.7804) between spike-ACE2 blocking antibody titers and neutralization potency was observed. Further, SARS-CoV-2 specific CD8+ T-cell responses were clear and quantifiable in 95 of 106(90%) HLA-A2+ individuals.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352396421002036

Categories
Publications

Increased risk for COVID-19 in patients with vitamin D deficiency – Science Direct

Vitamin D deficiency is strongly associated with increased risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The odds ratio for COVID-19 increases with vitamin deficiency in black individuals.

Diabetes, obesity, and periodontal disease are associated with an increased risk for both COVID-19 and vitamin D deficiency.

Patients with vitamin D deficiency were 4.6 times more likely to be positive for COVID-19 (indicated by the ICD-10 diagnostic code COVID19) than patients with no deficiency (P < 0.001). The association decreased slightly after adjusting for sex (odds ratio [OR] = 4.58; P < 0.001) and malabsorption (OR = 4.46; P < 0.001), respectively. The association decreased significantly but remained robust (P < 0.001) after adjusting for race (OR = 3.76; P < 0.001), periodontal disease status (OR = 3.64; P < 0.001), diabetes (OR = 3.28; P < 0.001), and obesity (OR = 2.27; P < 0.001), respectively. In addition, patients with vitamin D deficiency were 5 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than patients with no deficiency after adjusting for age groups (OR = 5.155; P < 0.001).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900720303890

Categories
Publications

COVID-19 outpatients: early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study – Science Direct

First COVID-19 outpatient study based on risk stratification and early antiviral treatment at the beginning of the disease.

Low-dose hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc and azithromycin was an effective therapeutic approach against COVID-19.

Significantly reduced hospitalisation rates in the treatment group.

Reduced mortality rates in the treatment group.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201117161908/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920304258

Categories
Publications

Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: A pilot randomized clinical study – Science Direct

The vitamin D endocrine system have a variety of actions on cells and tissues involved in COVID-19 progression.

Early calcifediol (25-hydroxyvitamin D) treatment to hospitalized COVID-19 patients significantly reduced intensive care unit admissions-Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the COVID-19.

Calcifediol seems to be able to reduce severity of the disease.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960076020302764

Categories
Publications

Surgical masks as source of bacterial contamination during operative procedures – Science Direct (2018)

The source of bacterial contamination in SMs was the body surface of the surgeons rather than the OR environment. Moreover, we recommend that surgeons should change the mask after each operation, especially those beyond 2 hours. Double-layered SMs or those with excellent filtration function may also be a better alternative.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214031X18300809