European and American agencies (such as the Centers for Disease Control [CDC]) have begun evaluating reports on myocarditis in individuals who received one of the COVID-19 vaccines based on messenger RNA technology (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna). This possible association has not been yet established and, even if confirmed in the future, it would not undermine the…
Diagnosis and Treatment of Vaccine-Induced Thrombosis
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis is an extremely rare manifestation of cerebrovascular disease. In the last few days, this pathology has sadly gained fame due to its association with two vector-based vaccines against SARR COV19. These are Ad26.COV2.S (Johnson & Johnson) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca). There have not been any reports of thrombosis or thrombocytopenia from…
New Cardiac Failure Diagnoses after COVID-19 Infection
This is the largest study on new signs and symptoms of cardiac failure in patients after COVID-19. Even though low in prevalence, its occurrence in healthy patients with no prior risk factors is worrying. The potential for SARS-CoV 2 to directly affect the heart has been studied since the pandemic onset. These studies have shown…
Thrombocytopenia and Thrombosis May Be Linked to AstraZeneca Vaccine, Analysis Reports
This is one of the first papers documenting rare thrombotic effects related to the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in Austria and Germany. These effects may be a type of thrombocytopenia after inoculation with the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. This paper, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), has received plenty…
Efficacy of Mass Vaccination with Pfizer/BioNTech against COVID-19 in Israel
We need to know how effective vaccines are by population subgroup outside the controlled setting of a clinical trial. Israel was one of the first countries to deploy a nationwide mass vaccination strategy. This is why it results ideal to compare its results against clinical trial results. All subjects receiving the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine…
Major Cause of Myocardial Injury by COVID-19
The most common cause of myocardial necrosis in patient undergoing COVID-19 infection is microthrombi. These microthrombi resulted quite different in composition vs. thrombi obtained from COVID-19 negative patients and thrombi obtained from infected patients with ACS. Myocardial injury is common in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and has worse prognosis. Regardless its frequency, the mechanism and…
Asymptomatic Patients: The Key to Understand the Prevalence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
This study recently published in JAMA showed that asymptomatic individuals infected with COVID-19 account for more than half of all instances of disease transmission. This finding is key to direct resources in the right direction to manage the pandemic until safe and effective vaccines are available and widely used. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2…
Findings on Sputnik V Vaccine Against COVID-19
The Sputnik V vaccine was developed by Gamaleya NRCEM. Similarly to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, it is based on a viral vector, and its findings were published in Lancet. The Russian vaccine comprises two different adenoviruses in the first and the second dose, making it more effective and generating an extended immune response. Both vectors carry…
Safety and Efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Against COVID-19
The NEJM has published the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, featuring slight differences in the age of enrollment and endpoint definitions compared with other vaccines. Similarly to Moderna‘s, this vaccine is composed of a lipid nanoparticle with modified RNA that encodes a spike glycoprotein covering the surface, modified by two…
Efficacy of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine
With the results of the main vaccines published in leading journals, summarizing each of them is relevant in order to inform our patients. Considering the differences in efficacy, safety, logistics, and subjective confidence according to the origin of each of them, having robust information to provide informed advice was a must. Today, we will analyze…