Based on the recent peer-reviewed studies from 2023-2024, here are the key findings on serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination:
The Global Vaccine Data Network study, which included 99 million vaccinated people across eight countries, identified several significant safety signals[6]. The study found an increased risk of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) with a relative incidence of 3.74 (95% CI: 1.02-13.70) and transverse myelitis with a relative incidence of 2.49 (95% CI: 1.07-5.79) associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine[6]. These translate to 0.78 cases of ADEM per million doses and 1.82 cases of transverse myelitis per million doses[6].
Analysis of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) in the United States revealed that among 900,522 reports between 2020-2022, the most common serious symptoms were headache (15.68%), pyrexia (13.56%), and fatigue (13.54%)[3]. For cardiovascular complications, the rates per million vaccines were: myocarditis (4.94), pericarditis (3.45), thrombosis (8.36), thrombocytopenia (1.98), hypertension (13.70), arrhythmia (2.22), and tachycardia (12.45)[5].
In Canada, out of 105,016,456 administered vaccine doses, 11,702 serious adverse events were reported (11.1 reports per 100,000 doses)[2]. For the newer XBB.1.5 vaccines, 27 serious events were reported (0.0005% of doses), while bivalent vaccines had 261 serious events (0.003% of doses)[2].
European data through December 2023 shows approximately 1 billion vaccine doses administered in EU/EEA countries with 1.7 million reports of suspected side effects (0.2 reports per 100 doses) and about 12,000 reports of fatal outcomes (0.001 per 100 doses)[7]. Up to May 2023, around 900 cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) were reported following AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines, with approximately 200 fatal cases[7].
Quellen:
[1] 2024-2025 COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness, Side Effects, Safety … https://www.mskcc.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine
[2] Reported side effects following COVID-19 vaccination in Canada https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/vaccine-safety/
[3] Adverse Events of COVID-19 Vaccines in the United States https://publichealth.jmir.org/2024/1/e51007
[4] A review of neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccination https://eurjmedres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40001-023-00992-0
[5] Review of adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines … https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10507236/
[6] Covid-19: Two rare vaccine side effects detected in large global study https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q488
[7] Safety of COVID-19 vaccines | European Medicines Agency (EMA) https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory-overview/public-health-threats/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/covid-19-medicines/safety-covid-19-vaccines
[8] Side effects of COVID-19 vaccines in the middle eastern population https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1270187/full
[9] COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24001270
[10] [PDF] Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFIs) for COVID-19 in … https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/covid-19-aefi-report.pdf
