Everything heart and stroke patients
should know about COVID-19 vaccines
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 5-FEB. 11, 2021 17
Experts have a simple
answer for heart and
stroke patients questioning
whether they should
get a COVID-19 vaccination.
That answer: yes.
“People with all kinds of
cardiovascular risk factors
and disease should definitely
get vaccinated to protect themselves
and their families from
COVID-19,” said Dr. Mitchell
Elkind, a professor of neurology
and epidemiology at New-
York-Presbyterian Hospital/
Columbia University Irving
Medical Center in New York
City.
The Food and Drug Administration
approved vaccines
pose no special problems for
such patients, said Elkind,
who also is president of the
American Heart Association.
The AHA issued a statement
Friday encouraging people
with cardiovascular risk factors,
heart disease or a history
of heart attack or stroke to get
vaccinated “as soon as possible.”
Getting vaccinated is
especially important for them,
Elkind said, because people
with such underlying conditions
have a higher chance of
developing complications from
COVID-19, the disease caused
by the coronavirus.
“People with heart disease
or stroke – or for that matter,
risk factors for heart disease
and stroke – are at much greater
risk from the virus than
they are from the vaccine,” he
said. The vaccines have side effects,
but Elkind called the
risk of a complication exceedingly
small. “The most likely
thing that will occur is a sore
arm,” he said. “I can tell you, I
got the vaccine, the first dose
of the Moderna vaccine. And
my arm hurt for a few days,
like somebody had punched
me there. But I was still able to
use my arm and lift it, and that
was it.”
People shouldn’t be surprised
if they hear about
other temporary side effects,
said Orly Vardeny, associate
professor of medicine at the
Minneapolis VA Health Care
System and University of Minnesota.
The FDA’s approval of
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine,
for example, listed pain at the
injection site, tiredness, headache,
muscle pain, chills, joint
pain and fever as common reactions.
Vardeny, who has done
extensive research on flu vaccines,
said such reactions are
a sign the body is mounting an
immune response, “and that’s
a good thing. That’s what we
want to happen in order for
our bodies to make antibodies
that will prevent us from getting
sick if we encounter the
virus again.”
The vaccines currently approved
for use in the U.S. do
not have a live virus, so that
reduces concerns for heart
disease patients or others with
weakened immune systems,
Vardeny said.
The vaccines also can be
safely administered to people
on blood-thinning medications,
Elkind said. “The needle
is small. To avoid bruising,
people on blood thinners
should press firmly for a minute
or so, just like after getting
blood drawn.”
In rare cases, the COVID-19
vaccine can cause a severe allergic
reaction, which is why
people should be monitored
after the injection. And as the
vaccine is administered to millions
of people, other rare issues
might be reported, Vardeny
said. “I think we’ll learn a
lot more about the tolerability
and potential reactions as the
vaccine gets rolled out.”
Some questions can’t be answered
yet.
Trials in children, for example,
are ongoing, which
is why the vaccines have not
been approved for them. And
data is limited on adults who
have congenital heart conditions.
It may take time before everyone
has access to a COVID-
19 vaccine. But people can
protect themselves from influenza
now by getting a flu shot,
Elkind and Vardeny emphasized.
The flu vaccine doesn’t
protect against COVID-19,
but it does reduce the chance
of developing symptoms that
might be confused with it and
hinder a diagnosis. A flu shot
also offers protection against
heart-related complications of
the flu.
But timing matters. Interim
guidance from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention’s
panel on immunization
practices says a flu vaccine
shouldn’t be given at the
same time as one for COVID-
19. “There should be a 14-day
separation,” Vardeny said.
Misinformation abounds
about vaccines, which makes
it essential for people to seek
trustworthy sources for facts.
The best authority will be a
primary care provider, cardiologist,
pharmacist or other
medical professional, Vardeny
said. “They’re going to have
accurate and up-to-date information,
and they’re going to
be able to steer you in the direction
of information that’s
truthful.”
The CDC also regularly updates
its information on vaccines
. Elkind said he’s often
asked whether the COVID-19
vaccines are safe, given how
quickly they were developed.
It’s a particular concern in
the Black community, he said,
where there’s a “tragic and
inappropriate” history with
medical experiments.
The COVID-19 vaccines
might have arrived within a
year of the pandemic’s start,
he said, but research into the
underlying technology had
been going on for more than a
decade. So people should see it
as a positive that a vaccine arrived
with such speed.
“And again, (many) people
have been vaccinated already,
with no evidence of any significant
unexpected side effects
so far,” Elkind said. “I think
that’s good news for all of us.”
— Courtesy of American
Heart Association
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/QNS.COM
