Guest Post by Zachary Stieber
Researchers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that pulmonary embolism — blood clotting in the lungs — met the initial threshold for a statistical signal in elderly individuals and continued meeting the criteria after a more in-depth evaluation.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been linked to blood clotting in older individuals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FDA researchers, crunching data from a database of elderly persons in the United States, found that pulmonary embolism — blood clotting in the lungs — met the initial threshold for a statistical signal and continued meeting the criteria after a more in-depth evaluation.
Three other outcomes of interest — a lack of oxygen to the heart, a blood platelet disorder called immune thrombocytopenia and another type of clotting called intravascular coagulation — initially raised red flags, researchers said.
More in-depth evaluations, such as comparisons with populations who received influenza vaccines, showed those three as no longer meeting the statistical threshold for a signal.
Researchers looked at data covering 17.4 million elderly Americans who received a total of 34.6 million vaccine doses between Dec. 10, 2020, and Jan. 16, 2022.
The study was published by the journal Vaccine on Dec. 1.
Continue reading “FDA Study: COVID Vaccine Linked to Blood Clotting in Elderly”
