A team of prominent Japanese medical researchers has revealed that the side effects associated with Covid mRNA shots continue for a long time after the injection.
The new study, led by Dr. Haruka Hikichi, MD of the Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Laboratory Medicine at Akita University, found that injuries from Covid shots can act like a ticking time bomb, with adverse events emerging long after the injection was received.
The peer-reviewed study was published in the prestigious Cureus medical journal.
The research team, which includes Professor Shigeharu Ueki, MD PhD, a renowned allergist and immunologist specialist, sought to better understand the nature of reported adverse events following Covid mRNA injection.
While the authors suggest the majority of these incidences have been transient, meaning temporary, they note that an alarming number of cases involving persistent adverse events have been uncovered.
The single-site study aimed to analyze patient background characteristics and trends while investigating the level of transient versus persistent COVID-19 vaccine adverse events.
Conducting the retrospective study again at a single institution in Japan, the investigators studied the presence of persistent symptoms, especially pain, after Covid mRNA injection.
They found that this persistence was particularly frequent after the second shot.
Ensuring to include language to clarify that they are anti-vaccine, the authors expressly emphasize they are not questioning the usefulness of the COVID-19 vaccine.
They note that the study sought to objectively identify the long-term impact of the shots.
This study finds the majority of persons experiencing COVID-19 vaccine adverse events continue to experience these conditions for longer periods of time.
They noted that various forms of pain were common among those suffering from long-term injuries.
This retrospective observational study was conducted in Akita prefecture with a population of 915,000.
This population was the most vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country, with first vaccination coverage of 87.7%, second vaccination coverage of 86.9%, third vaccination coverage of 78.8%, and fourth vaccination coverage of 62.7%, as noted by formal government vaccine statistics by the end of February 2024.
This single-site cohort included 47 patients who presented with symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination between May 2021 and September 2023.
Classified into two groups based on the duration of symptoms 1) transient group, less than four weeks; and 2) persistent group, greater than or equal to four weeks, the investigators retrospectively included data on age, sex, body mass index, smoking history, underlying conditions, type of COVID-19 vaccination, number of doses, onset, symptoms, and treatments.
As far as the study population, the median age was 51.0 years and 74.5% were females, with a particularly high proportion of women in their 40s report Hikichi et al.
The use of the bivalent omicron-containing booster vaccine (BA.1) was significantly more common in the persistent group than in the transient group (p = 0.0267).
This means that the bivalent booster led to a lot more longer-term injury situations.
Onset in the transient group was more common after the first vaccination, whereas onset in the persistent group was more common after the second and subsequent vaccinations (p = 0.003).
Regarding symptoms, pain was more frequent in the persistent group than in the transient group (60% vs. 13.6%; p = 0.001).
In the present study, 60% of patients with persistent symptoms reported pain, suggesting a possible association between pain and COVID-19 vaccination.
In the present study, the proportion of women in their 40s tended to be significantly higher.
This finding supports the notion that women in their 40s may be at risk of developing adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination
The researchers confirmed that their study determined that there is a link between additional vaccinations and the persistence of symptoms after receiving a Covid mRNA shot.
They conclude by urging further investigations into the long-term impact on public health from the mass vaccination campaign.
