If a couple of years ago Covid-19 caused fear, now some of us don’t even notice when we carry it, writes LA.LV. How to distinguish a Covid illness from a common cold?
“Modern Covid-19 has become very mild; it cannot be compared to the Covid we encountered at the beginning and how it manifested itself. The first variants of the virus caused severe lung damage; now, in most cases, the Covid infection poses no threat to young and healthy people — unlike the first variants, when young people died from lung damage. Now it can be equated with other common viruses, the only difference being that it can still affect at-risk groups — the elderly and those who live with chronic diseases in their daily lives. Covid can still cause thrombosis, heart attacks, strokes, which ordinary flu does not,” said pulmonologist Diana Ergle from the Skridssky Heart Clinic in the TV24 program “The Doctor Answers.”
Speaking of Covid, it is impossible not to mention vaccination, which has caused a serious divide in society. Recently, it was reported that adults who received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine have a lower risk of death regardless of the cause, according to a new study conducted in France.
Among people who received at least one dose of the mRNA vaccine against Covid-19, the risk of mortality from any cause was lower compared to the unvaccinated.
The results show that these vaccines, contrary to concerns about potential long-term risks, are associated with reduced mortality over a four-year period — starting from the peak of vaccination in 2021.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), by February 2023, more than 976 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered in the European Union, and since then, programs have continued with tens of millions of additional booster doses each season.
In a study analyzing data from 28 million French adults aged 18 to 59, it was found that vaccinated individuals had a 74% lower risk of death from severe Covid-19, and the overall mortality risk was 25% lower.
Researchers noted that the lower mortality risk is partially explained by strong protection against severe disease — vaccinated adults died from the infection significantly less often. It was also suggested that a lower number of complications related to long Covid could have contributed to the overall reduction in mortality.
The study was conducted by “Epi-Phare,” a group of scientific interests under the supervision of the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) and the French National Health Insurance Fund. The team concluded that the causal relationship between mRNA vaccination and excess long-term mortality now appears extremely unlikely.
Using data from the French National Health Data System, the study included 22.7 million individuals vaccinated between May and October 2021, and 5.9 million unvaccinated individuals as of November 1, 2021; they were followed for an average of 45 months.
This study is the largest analysis to date of the long-term safety of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 in the general adult population.
Participants were no older than 59 years, so the conclusions do not directly apply to the elderly, who are at the highest risk for Covid-19.
Over four years of observation, among the vaccinated, there were 98,429 deaths from all causes (0.4%), compared to 32,662 cases (0.6%) among the unvaccinated.
The authors reported that no increase in mortality from cancer, cardiovascular diseases, accidents, or any other significant causes was found; for each category, the mortality rates among the vaccinated were the same or lower than those who remained unvaccinated.
