Oct. 26, 2023 — COVID-19 and flu vaccines could increase the chance of stroke in older people, especially when given together and to seniors over 85, a brand new study says.
“There is no need to panic and there is emphatically no reason to stop co-administering COVID and flu shots to older adults,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist on the University of California, San Francisco ABC News.
The results even have not yet been peer-reviewed, ABC News reported.
The FDA told ABC News it’s “confident in the safety, effectiveness and quality of the COVID-19 vaccines that the agency has approved and authorized.”
FDA researchers expressed concerns after reviewing the Medicare claims, CNN reported.
The risk identified by the FDA is low – about three strokes or transient ischemic attacks per 100,000 doses, CNN wrote. “The study found that this may be primarily due to the high-dose or adjuvanted flu vaccines, which are specifically designed to boost the immune system to respond more strongly to vaccination.”
The FDA found a rather higher risk of stroke for people age 65 and older who had received only a high-dose flu shot — one to 2 strokes per 100,000 doses.
“The absolute risk is tiny,” said Dr. Steve Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic told CNN. “I mean it’s trivial compared to the risk for people over 85 of dying from Covid.”
Other studies have found no additional risk of stroke after vaccination against Covid-19, influenza or each.