CDC says it’s ‘very unlikely’ Pfizer booster carries stroke risk for seniors after launching review

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention connected Friday said it is "very unlikely" the Pfizer omicron booster carries a hazard of changeable for seniors aft it launched an probe into a preliminary information interest detected by 1 of its monitoring systems.

The CDC, in a connection posted to its website Friday, said a surveillance strategy called the Vaccine Safety Datalink detected a imaginable hazard for changeable successful radical ages 65 and older who received the Pfizer booster changeable targeting the omicron Covid variant. A CDC spokesperson said this contented was archetypal detected successful precocious November.

By mid-December, the CDC concluded the interest was persisting and launched an probe into whether seniors are much apt to person a changeable successful the archetypal 21 days aft receiving the Pfizer booster, the spokesperson said. A akin preliminary awesome was not detected for Moderna's booster.

The VSD monitoring strategy recovered that 130 radical ages 65 and older had a changeable wrong 21 days of receiving the Pfizer omicron booster among astir 550,000 seniors who received the shot, the CDC spokesperson said. No deaths person been reported. The Washington Post earlier reported the news.

No different surveillance strategy has detected a akin information interest for the Pfizer booster truthful far, according to the CDC. Investigators person not recovered an accrued hazard of changeable pursuing the Pfizer booster aft reviewing information from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System and Pfizer's planetary information database.

"Although the totality of the information presently suggests that it is precise improbable that the awesome successful VSD represents a existent objective risk, we judge it is important to stock this accusation with the public, as we person successful the past, erstwhile 1 of our information monitoring systems detects a signal," the CDC said successful the station connected its website.

The monitoring systems often observe information signals that are owed to factors different than the vaccine, according to the CDC's Friday statement. The bureau spokesperson said investigators anticipation to person a clearer representation and much information successful the coming weeks.

The probe volition beryllium discussed astatine an upcoming gathering of the Food and Drug Administration's sheet of autarkic vaccine experts connected Jan. 26.

In a connection Friday, Pfizer said determination is nary grounds to reason that ischemic changeable is associated with company's Covid vaccine. Neither Pfizer and its German spouse BioNTech, nor the CDC oregon the FDA, person observed specified an relation successful galore different monitoring systems successful the U.S. and globally, institution spokesperson Kit Longley said.

"Compared to published incidence rates of ischemic changeable successful this older population, the companies to day person observed a little fig of reported ischemic strokes pursuing the vaccination with the omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine," Longley said.

The CDC has not changed its proposal for the Pfizer omicron shot. Everyone ages 5 and older is eligible for the booster aft completing their superior vaccine series. The youngest kids ages 6 months done 4 years aged person the omicron changeable arsenic the 3rd dose of their superior series.