U.S. CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent COVID shot - Yahoo News

By Michael Erman

(Reuters) - New information from 1 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database shows a imaginable changeable hazard nexus for older adults who received an updated Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot, but the awesome is weaker than what the bureau had flagged earlier successful January, wellness officials said connected Thursday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they had not detected a nexus betwixt the shots and strokes successful 2 different information monitoring databases.

The caller information was presented astatine a gathering of extracurricular experts that counsel the FDA connected vaccine policy.

Earlier this month, U.S. wellness officials said they had detected the imaginable nexus to ischemic strokes successful radical implicit property 65 who received the newer booster shots successful its Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) database. They said astatine the clip it was precise improbable to correspond a existent objective risk.

Dr. Nicole Klein of healthcare institution Kaiser Permanente, which maintains VSD information for the CDC, said the complaint of strokes observed successful the database had slowed successful caller weeks, but the awesome was inactive statistically significant, meaning apt not by chance.

Most of the confirmed cases had besides received a flu vaccine astatine the aforesaid time, which mightiness beryllium a factor, she said.

FDA idiosyncratic Richard Forshee said the bureau plans to survey whether determination is immoderate accrued hazard of changeable from receiving the 2 shots astatine the aforesaid time.

Both agencies inactive urge older adults person the booster shots, present tailored to people Omicron variants arsenic good arsenic the archetypal coronavirus.

Dr. Walid Gellad, prof of medicine astatine University of Pittsburgh, said the contented required further investigation.

"Sometimes signals are not clear," Gellad said successful an email. "It makes consciousness to look into it more, and it doesn't marque consciousness to alteration signifier fixed the known benefits (of getting the booster) successful this property group."

(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot)