No ‘elevated risk’ of stroke from Pfizer’s bivalent COVID shot, Health Canada says
Global News
'Currently, in Canada, available data shows that there is no indication of a signal related to ischemic stroke and mRNA bivalent vaccines,' Health Canada said.
Recent data from one U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) database has detected a potential stroke risk link in older adults who received an updated Pfizer COVID-19 bivalent shot. However, according to Health Canada (HC) there is currently “no indication” connecting mRNA bivalent vaccines with ischemic strokes.
Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke, according to Health Canada’s website. It involves a sudden loss of brain function triggered by a sudden brain blood vessel blockage. This can be caused by a variety of reasons, including smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and high blood cholesterol.
Although Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) “are aware” of the recent announcement on the “possible preliminary COVID-19 vaccine safety signal between the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 vaccine and strokes in people aged 65 and over,” the agency pointed out that “at this time, the CDC is not recommending any changes to vaccination practices.”
In an emailed statement to Global News on Friday, the agency said that as of Jan. 1, over seven million mRNA bivalent vaccines have been administered in Canada but to date, PHAC or HC “have not observed an elevated risk or any signals for thromboembolic events or vascular events” after the administration of these vaccines.
The statement added that the possible link between bivalent Pfizer shots and strokes in older adults has not been observed by any other international regulatory services to date, either.
“Health Canada and PHAC continue to monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines approved in Canada to ensure that their benefits continue to outweigh their risks, as is done for all approved vaccines in Canada,” it read.
As the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continue to investigate whether there is an association between ischemic stroke and the Pfizer bivalent vaccine for older adults, U.S. health officials on Thursday said that the signal is weaker than what the CDC had flagged earlier in January.
U.S. FDA officials said they had not detected a link between the shots and strokes in two other safety monitoring databases.
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