Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Studies Confirm Covid Shots Have Low Heart Health Risks
The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccines Carry Low Risk Of Heart Conditions, Studies Find
The risk of developing inflammatory heart conditions after Covid-19 vaccination is relatively low, two large studies found, especially when compared with the heart-related risks from Covid-19 disease itself and from vaccines against other diseases. One study, an analysis of 22 previous studies, found that the risk of the conditions including myocarditis in people who received a Covid-19 vaccine wasn’t significantly different from that for non-Covid-19 vaccines such as those against flu, polio and measles. And the heart risk associated with Covid-19 shots was lower than the risk after smallpox vaccination. The results of the analysis, which included data on the effects of more than 400 million doses of various vaccines, were published online Monday by The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. (Loftus and Onque, 4/11)
The Guardian: Heart Inflammation After Covid Vaccine ‘No More Common Than After Other Jabs’
Heart inflammation after a Covid jab is not only rare but no more common than after other types of vaccinations, researchers have found. As Covid vaccination programs began around the world it emerged that some people – particularly young men – subsequently developed myocarditis, a type of inflammation of the heart muscle, or pericarditis, inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. (Davis, 4/11)
In related news about myocarditis —
CIDRAP: Study Shows COVID-19–Induced Myocarditis Rare, Linked To Severe Cases
Approximately 2.4 out of every 1,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that typically follows viral infections, according to an international study published yesterday in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal Circulation. When including possible myocarditis cases, the rate increases to 4.1 per 1,000 hospitalized patients. (4/12)
In other news about the vaccine rollout —
Stat: Researchers Developing Covid Vaccine For Immunocompromised People
A couple months before the pandemic started, Joseph Ford started experiencing a rash of pinpoint polka dots around his lips, ankles, and lower legs. They were itchy, inflamed, painful, and, for him, the first signs of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “Petechiae,” he explained. Just as he was starting to deal with that, Covid-19 changed the world. “Go home and stay there,” Ford, a 77-year-old retired librarian in Tumwater, Wash., recalled a physician telling him as Covid hollowed out society. “You won’t survive a Covid infection.” That advice has largely remained unchanged over the last two years for the millions who, like Ford, are immunocompromised and haven’t produced adequate — or any — antibodies from the Covid-19 vaccines. (Chen, 4/12)
Daily Beast: Tucker Carlson Brags To Megachurch That He Is Totally Unvaccinated
For more than a year now, Fox News star Tucker Carlson has gone out of his way to avoid confirming whether or not he’s vaccinated. This month, however, he bragged about having not gotten a single jab. While speaking at Awaken Church earlier this month, the primetime star heaped praise on the San Diego megachurch for defying COVID-19 restrictions throughout the pandemic before mocking the need for additional booster shots. “I skipped the first three, I’m not getting that one either,” Carlson said, to rapturous applause from the crowd, Voice of San Diego first reported. (Baragona and Cartwright, 4/11)
PolitiFact: No, The COVID-19 Vaccines Do Not Contain ‘HIV Lipid Wrappers’
Since the first COVID-19 vaccines became available to the public in late 2020, people have falsely claimed that all sorts of nefarious things are in them, including aluminum, graphene oxide and microchips. Here’s a new one. "There are HIV lipid wrappers in the jabs you shoved in your arms and the arms of your children. Does that at all upset (you)?" said an April 10 post shared on Facebook. This isn’t accurate. The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines that use lipids do not contain any live viruses. The ingredients for all the approved vaccines are published and none include any HIV material. (Putterman, 4/12)
In related news —
Crain's Chicago Business: Loretto Hospital CEO George Miller Jr. Is Out
Loretto Hospital CEO George Miller Jr. has left the West Side community medical center after the hospital was investigated by the FBI for improperly distributing COVID-19 vaccines last year. Miller, who had served as CEO for five years, left the hospital today, spokeswoman Bonni Pear confirmed. She declined to provide details around the reasons for his departure and would not say if he resigned or was fired. (Davis, 4/12)
New Hampshire Public Radio: As COVID Infrastructure Winds Down, N.H. Public Health Leaders Worry About Missed Opportunity For Investment
Over the past month, New Hampshire’s state-managed COVID vaccination sites, testing centers, and some mobile vaccine teams have been decommissioned. The wind down of this COVID infrastructure is part of a long-standing plan to shift the pandemic response away from state government and into the private sector healthcare system of pharmacies, community health centers and hospitals. But public health experts say the nature of the pandemic, which comes in waves of hard to predict magnitude, makes it difficult to determine how prepared New Hampshire is for future surges, especially with legislative efforts in the State House to curtail some key public health tools. And as public health leaders look ahead, they worry New Hampshire is missing a critical opportunity to build on the infrastructure developed over the course of the pandemic, to prepare for future public health crises. (Fam, 4/12)
