Long-Term COVID Vaccine Effects? Unlikely

"These are some of the most remarkably safe and effective drugs in medicine today."

"I can't think of even an obliquely plausible mechanism [whereby long-term effects of the vaccines might surface in the future]."

"[However], there is simply no reason to suspect that, after a year, or five, or 10, that there is going to be some long-term consequences."

"I'm not even aware of a vaccine in current use that has long-term side effects."

"If there was something that was going to manifest in a delayed fashion it would be manifesting now, and it's not."

Dr.David Juurlink, head, division of clinical pharmacology and toxicology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto

"What it all comes down to is our tolerance for risk."

"And the human brain is sort of programmed to think that doing nothing is safer than doing something. That is not always an accurate assessment of risk."

"There's never been a case of a vaccine or immune response turning foul after that time point [about eight weeks after causing an immune response] fully and completely developed."

"The vaccine ingredients are long gone; it's the immune response that remains. And that immune response is only directed toward one thing [the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus]."

Dawn Bowdish, Canada Research Chair, aging and immunity, professor, McMaster University

Photo: MU Health Care

 

When Dr. Juurlink is asked to examine patients with rare side effects occasioned from drugs "Very often that's a delayed reaction", when an individual might be prescribed an antibiotic for a skin condition. Six weeks after, they might be admitted to hospital suffering damage to a major organ, such as kidney or lung. Dr. Juurlink has spent 35 years of his professional life in the study of drugs and side effects, witnessing the "weirdest of the weird". And he has no hesitation based on his experience, in drawing the conclusion that COVID-19 vaccines will have no long-term consequences.

Quite simply, in his experience and based on his professional expertise in that specific area, no convincing reason exists to believe those vaccines could pose long-term risks of any kind in the future. There are times when new drugs emerge on the market with side effects that manifest a presence after widespread use. In the case of COVID-19 vaccines there have been such complications; the blood-clotting syndrome linked with the viral vector vaccines AstaZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Rare, but higher-than-expected rates of heart inflammation associated with both Moderna and Pfizer's mRNA vaccines. In particular among young males and generally speaking, occurring following their second dose of vaccine. Unexpected side effects occur within days or weeks of inoculation. Sde effects from drugs can include cumulative toxicity when prescribed for daily use; months or even years, but vaccines are taken once. They have been used for close to a year, now.

 

Photo: Boston Review

 

The most frequently reported adverse reactions, according to Health Canada data include tingling and pricking sensations, pain at the site of the injection, headache, fatigue, hives, dizziness, numbness, fever and joint pain. There were 97 reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome, 594 of Bell's palsy, and 1, 111 reports of heart involvement within the 59 million doses administered up to October 22. A total of 208 reports of death following vaccination with a COVID-19 vaccine have been registered, "not necessarily related to the vaccine".

A U.S. database that tracks adverse vaccine reactions found the majority of reports over a six-month period involved side effects deemed "mild and short in duration", out of the more than 298 million doses of mRNA vaccines given. The report based on side effects cited 4,472 reports of death certificates or autopsy reports. Heart disease was the main cause of death, followed by COVID-19. Up to 42 days following vaccination, deaths were 15 to 50 times less frequent than the expected background rates of death from all causes per million vaccinated people.

Of 20,818 individual reports (representing 0.0365 percent of all doses administered), 5,394  were considered serious, representing 0.009 percent. Both in Canada and the United States (along with other countries) more women than men report side effects from COVID doses. Women account for the majority -- 74.8 percent -- of adverse event reports. It is unclear whether this is "due in part to health- care seeking behaviour" (women commonly likelier to report side effects to doctors) or to biological factors.

A noticeably higher risk of a brain blood clot known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis was noted in a research letter recently published, compared to pre-COVID levels in women vaccinated with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, particularly in the 30- to 59-year-old female group. Absolute risk, however was deemed to be a "whisper higher", based on raw numbers. Women, it was found, tend to experience more robust antibody responses to vaccines, according to experts.

The Ministry of Education said it intends to implement a vaccination status disclosure policy for publicly funded school board employees, as well as staff in private schools and licensed child-care settings. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)