Vaccination against the covid-19 virus since the beginning of the pandemic has been a controversial issue, I would say a complicated one. Multiple lines of research with different effectiveness and side effects and some vaccines in the end that have not been 100% effective, that is, they have not protected all those vaccinated correctly nor have they prevented their transmission. It must also be said that in its future, another virus appeared, the Omicron with all its variants, more contagious but less serious. Hence, either due to the extension of vaccination or due to infection with this new virus, the severity was reduced and with it the mortality from this disease.
And perhaps it is this fact, that of suffering from this disease in a more or less mild or inapparent way, has been one of the possible advantages of vaccination.
Thus, a few days ago a study by Alan C. Kwan et al (JAMA Netw Open. 2023) was published showing how vaccination against covid-19 could have reduced the appearance of new cases of diabetes among patients who had suffered from the disease. Something that at first sight surprises.
Well, we also talked a long time ago that the infection could cause diabetes (“Es Diari” 07-04-2020: 23) as this virus acts in all tissues of the human body, although in a way that is not entirely known, causing inflammation of the tissues, the cause of the phenomenon that we call insulin resistance, the basis of diabetes.
A phenomenon which also influences other cardiovascular risk factors such as arterial hypertension or lipids (cholesterol)… substrates of cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction…), which are also increased after covid-19 infection.
The work by Alan C. Kwan et al showed the results of a cohort (large population) of 23,709 patients with a mean age of 47.4 ± 19.3 years who had suffered one or more covid-19 infections. In these, new cases of diabetes, hypertension or hyperlipidemia 90 days after covid-19 infection were higher than those before infection. And most importantly, the risk of suffering from DM after infection was higher among those unvaccinated patients than among those vaccinated. Something that surprised.
In the same way, we read a few days ago that perhaps vaccination would also influence cardiovascular events, be it myocardial infarction, or at a cerebral level… Well, according to a very recent study announced by Joy Jiang et al (J Am Coll Cardiol. Feb 2023) so he says. A study, which we read, will be presented on March 5 at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Session/World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) 2023.
So according to this, from a cohort of 1.9 million patients with a mean age of 45 years, of whom 195,136 (10%) were correctly vaccinated, 22,707 (1.2%) partially vaccinated, and 1.7 million (88.7%) without to vaccinate, between March 2020 and February 2022 and during a 180-day follow-up, they observed that in this period of time the fully vaccinated had up to a 41% lower risk of cardiovascular events after infection than those who had not been vaccinated, and those who had partial vaccination were somewhat lower, 24% compared to those who were not vaccinated.
Therefore, it seems that the covid-19 vaccine, at least those included in these studies, are those of messenger RNA such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, and that of Johnson and Johnson (vector virus), would have unsuspected added effects. in those patients who had already passed the infection by this virus. That is to say, even having not prevented the disease in these patients, they were able to prevent its evolution and especially its cardiovascular complications. Good data.
