No, COVID-19 Is Not Like The Flu

"We have a much better understanding of the nature of COVID today. COVID damages the inner linings of the blood vessels."

"[COVID] causes inflammation of the blood vessels that can increase the risk of blood clots. We know it can, over time, lead to increased risk of having a heart attack, stroke, heart failure and things like that."

"Since cardiovascular disease can be silent, it's important to get your blood pressure checked and do further screening for cardiovascular disease if there are concerns."

"The severity of the infection doesn't seem to make a difference. These complications can occur even in people who have very mild symptoms. The big surprise is how much this can affect younger people. Studies are showing that even young, active people can experience heightened risk of these complications."

"So the benefit of vaccines far outweighs the risk when it comes to COVID, especially now we realize hos COVID can be so insidious and harmful for our cardiovascular system."

"The message here is you don't want to get COVID-19 if you can help it."

Dr. Peter Liu, chief scientific officer/vice-president research, University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Foam cells, which accumulate within arteries to form plaques in atherosclerosis, proved particularly susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2. Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

We've lived with SARS-Cov-2 for over three years, ever since it surprised the world with its lightning-fast infection, moving through the planet with amazing ease, infecting populations and leading to a panic within governments, desperately seeking answers from the medical community, urging scientists to decipher the virus that was bringing havoc and sickness and death, burdening hospitals beyond their capacity to care for desperately ill people.

 

That panic is gone. We understand that the virus causing COVID is here and it will remain a threat to people's health as it continuously evolves, becomes more infectious, but somewhat less immediately lethal than the original strain. Yet its impact on human health as it mutates and appears less of a threat has led to a prevailing attitude that like the seasonal flu, it's nothing to be all that concerned about. The cautions of the first year from medical experts to isolate, mask, perform strict hygiene protocols have given way to alert-fatigue.

 

Even when new strains appear that once again are responsible for a resumption of mass infections showing up in waste water as a warning that communities are facing another epidemic resulting in new vaccines designed with the new strains at target, the uptake on vaccines being urged to keep the vulnerable up to date on their immunity levels now fails to convince people they are needed. The message seems to be that since the virus is endemic it's no more threatening than another flu virus.

 

But while during the early pandemic the scientific understanding was that the virus represented a respiratory disease, that perception has now changed, with experience showing that it is also a vascular disease, placing people at heightened risk for heart attack and stroke. COVID-19 is now viewed as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, joining ranks with high cholesterol and diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking.

  

The research team members say they have long known that infections such as the flu can increase risk for heart disease and heart attack, but the sharp rise in heart attack deaths is like nothing seen before. Photo by Getty.

 

People with pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors are of course susceptible for a worsening of their conditions as medically vulnerable, but the general public is also at greater risk with COVID onset. Infectious disease specialists now link increased risk of myocardial infarction along with heart rhythm abnormalities, heart failure and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) with COVID-19 infection of recent vintage. Additionally, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines too can increase myocarditis risk. Even so, the risks associated with COVID are seen to be much grater than potential risk from the vaccine.

The risk of myocarditis was found over seven times higher in people who had been infected with COVID-19 than in those who received the vaccine, according to a 2022 study published in Frontiers of Cardiovascular Medicine. As well, the risk of developing a blood clot after an infection with COVID-19 is multiple times greater than after inoculation with  COVID vaccine. Neurological systems of the body are also affected by COVID-19.

Complications from COVID can be reduced by vaccines, even at infection. The tried-and-true masking and attention to public health advice are also seen to be effective in reducing risk of infection. Over 11 percent of Canadians following COVID infections have experienced long time COVID symptoms. Children vaccinated against COVID-19 were less likely to be left with long COVID, which can last for years, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature.

"I don't think we are going to get rid of COVID, so we need to protect ourselves against it", commented Dr. Liu.

In the year before the pandemic, there were 143,787 heart attack deaths; within the first year of the pandemic, this number had increased by 14% to 164,096.

The excess in acute myocardial infarction-associated mortality has persisted throughout the pandemic, even during the most recent period marked by a surge of the presumed less-virulent Omicron variant. 

Researchers found that although acute myocardial infarction deaths during the pandemic increased across all age groups, the relative rise was most significant for the youngest group, ages 25 to 44. 

By the second year of the pandemic, the “observed” compared to “predicted” rates of heart attack death had increased by 29.9% for adults ages 25-44, by 19.6% for adults ages 45-64, and by 13.7% for adults age 65 and older.

Cedar Sinai Medical Center