A stroke 12 hours after the RSV vaccine

by philg

A healthy tennis-playing 77-year-old friend in the Boston suburbs had his first stroke recently. It occurred 12 hours after he was injected, for the first time, with the newish RSV vaccine. He’s recovering reasonably well, but perhaps he needs some better friends. Having heard about the stroke, I called to scold him for not following the “physician, heal thyself” directive (he’s a cardiologist). On hearing that the stroke had followed the RSV vaccine, I said “I was going to ask whether you think it was the booze or the hookers that caused the stroke.”

I learned that there are some treatments for strokes, but they weren’t helpful to him. One is an injection of tPA, but it works only for certain kinds of strokes and must be administered almost immediately. That wouldn’t have been possible for him because he was waiting for four hours in the migrant-clogged ED to be seen (every migrant to Maskachusetts is immediately entitled to unlimited free health care and, as it turns out, there have been few licensed and board-certified physicians among the migrants so there is more demand for the same amount of supply). The new-to-me treatment was to stick a catheter into the brain and hunt for the clot and remove (“retrieve”) it! This seems to have been invented in 2007 by Medtronic and FDA-approved in 2012. NYU explains:

Other than the 12-hour timing coincidence, could there be any connection at all between an RSV vaccine and a stroke? “RSV and Heart Health” (American Heart Association):

Patients face a higher risk of heart attack or stroke immediately after contracting RSV. The highest risk is within three days of infection but remains heightened for up to 90 days.

Hmmm… the disease causes strokes so we can be 100 percent sure that the vaccine designed to fool the immune system into thinking the body has the disease does not cause strokes?

Related:

  • NHS guidelines for the RSV vaccine from the technocrats in Britain (for 75-79-year-olds)
  • the CDC, which previously said “get it at age 60”, now says “get it at age 75” (Science is always to be followed, of course!)

16 thoughts on “A stroke 12 hours after the RSV vaccine”

  1. Isn’t vaccines are made from weakened viruses? Vaccines are mild infections. so symptoms of vaccine should be milder symptoms of targeted desease. For seasonal flu, vaccines are proactive and never match the actual occurring strain. So flu is independent of flu vaccine, which itself causes major inconvenience which I would not call mild.

  2. Other than the 12-hour timing coincidence, could there be any connection at all between an RSV vaccine and a stroke? Yes!

  3. Lions are genetically disposed to die of a stroke. Grandpa had some 80 productive years before a stroke ended the party. Intervention for such a fast moving condition is pretty useless if it takes hours. Maybe they’re better off paying for an ambulance. When is AI going to do the job?

  4. Tenuously related, but: Do rich folks have AEDs in their homes? My anecdata says no, but wouldn’t this be sensible?

    • MB: a neighbor just got one before end of 2024 to use up an HSA. He and his wife are both physicians, though, so maybe the example doesn’t count.

  5. Your foolish friend must be a Trump supporter. Had he been smarter, he would have worn a mask and obeyed my orders to get multiple vaccines that haven’t been tested for efficacy and safety. I’m even now vaccinated against prosecution!! LFG Science.

  6. @phil what is the point of this post? other than illegals are over crowding the hospitals in MA. If you are saying vaccines are bad, they have side affects and nobody should get, then being a cardiologist he/she might have known the risks and benefits and made an educated decision to get one.

  8. A good friend of mine (the most athletic, physically active 60 year old I’ve ever known) had a stroke a few years ago while playing tennis. The doctors said they had no idea what caused it. The only thing they were absolutely certain of was that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the covid shot he had the day before.

    • Same deal with my dad. He died shortly after Pfizer shot #2. Cause of death uncertain but certainly not related to the Covid shot.

  9. Philip, Do you know which vaccine he got?

    Seems like there are 2 old-style RSV vaccines, and one mRNA-style vaccine.

    Remember when J&J was yanked during covid for causing blood clots? That was the old-school style. Seems like the mRNA versions generated better results and fewer problems.

    Although in MAGA circles, the mRNA versions were considered evil incarnate.

    • David, it is not true that J&J Covid-vaccine was old-school style vaccine. It was adenovirus-based vaccine, where, same as with mRNA vaccines, body cells are made to produce some virus proteins, and then those infected cells will we attacked by body’s own immune system. It is same principle as with mRNA vaccines, only the deliver mechanism is different; in mRNA vaccine it is lipid nanoparticles arround mRNA, and in adenovirus-based vaccines it is adenovirus. The problem with both of them is that any body cell can be infected, and then attacked by immune system (heart, blood vessel), causing well known problems (myocarditis, blood clotting). Adenovirus vaccines seem not to be used any more.

      It seems that there are several RSV vaccines, where at least one of them is mRNA based (from Moderna).

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