Impact of vaccination on the association of COVID-19 with cardiovascular diseases: An OpenSAFELY cohort study

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated with an increased risk of arterial and venous thrombotic events, but the implications of vaccination for this increased risk are uncertain. With the approval of NHS England, we quantified associations between COVID-19 diagnosis and cardiovascular diseases in different vaccination and variant eras using linked electronic health records for ~40% of the English population. We defined a ‘pre-vaccination’ cohort (18,210,937 people) in the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ cohorts (13,572,399 and 3,161,485 people respectively) in the Delta variant era (June-December 2021). We showed that the incidence of each arterial thrombotic, venous thrombotic and other cardiovascular outcomes was substantially elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19, compared with before or without COVID-19, but less markedly elevated in time periods beyond week 4. Hazard ratios were higher after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19 and higher in the pre-vaccination and unvaccinated cohorts than the vaccinated cohort. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of cardiovascular events after COVID-19 infection. People who had COVID-19 before or without being vaccinated are at higher risk of cardiovascular events for at least two years

COVID-19 and Mental Illnesses in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated People

Importance Associations have been found between COVID-19 and subsequent mental illness in both hospital- and population-based studies. However, evidence regarding which mental illnesses are associated with COVID-19 by vaccination status in these populations is limited.Objective To determine which mental illnesses are associated with diagnosed COVID-19 by vaccination status in both hospitalized patients and the general population.Design, Setting, and Participants This study was conducted in 3 cohorts, 1 before vaccine availability followed during the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021) and 2 (vaccinated and unvaccinated) during the Delta variant era (June-December 2021). With National Health Service England approval, OpenSAFELY-TPP was used to access linked data from 24 million people registered with general practices in England using TPP SystmOne. People registered with a GP in England for at least 6 months and alive with known age between 18 and 110 years, sex, deprivation index information, and region at baseline were included. People were excluded if they had COVID-19 before baseline. Data were analyzed from July 2022 to June 2024.Exposure Confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis recorded in primary care secondary care, testing data, or the death registry.Main Outcomes and Measures Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) comparing the incidence of mental illnesses after diagnosis of COVID-19 with the incidence before or without COVID-19 for depression, serious mental illness, general anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, and suicide.Results The largest cohort, the pre–vaccine availability cohort, included 18 648 606 people (9 363 710 [50.2%] female and 9 284 896 [49.8%] male) with a median (IQR) age of 49 (34-64) years. The vaccinated cohort included 14 035 286 individuals (7 308 556 [52.1%] female and 6 726 730 [47.9%] male) with a median (IQR) age of 53 (38-67) years. The unvaccinated cohort included 3 242 215 individuals (1 363 401 [42.1%] female and 1 878 814 [57.9%] male) with a median (IQR) age of 35 (27-46) years. Incidence of most outcomes was elevated during weeks 1 through 4 after COVID-19 diagnosis, compared with before or without COVID-19, in each cohort. Incidence of mental illnesses was lower in the vaccinated cohort compared with the pre–vaccine availability and unvaccinated cohorts: aHRs for depression and serious mental illness during weeks 1 through 4 after COVID-19 were 1.93 (95% CI, 1.88-1.98) and 1.49 (95% CI, 1.41-1.57) in the pre–vaccine availability cohort and 1.79 (95% CI, 1.68-1.90) and 1.45 (95% CI, 1.27-1.65) in the unvaccinated cohort compared with 1.16 (95% CI, 1.12-1.20) and 0.91 (95% CI, 0.85-0.98) in the vaccinated cohort. Elevation in incidence was higher and persisted longer after hospitalization for COVID-19.Conclusions and Relevance In this study, incidence of mental illnesses was elevated for up to a year following severe COVID-19 in unvaccinated people. These findings suggest that vaccination may mitigate the adverse effects of COVID-19 on mental health

Impact of vaccination on the association of COVID-19 with cardiovascular diseases:An OpenSAFELY cohort study

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated with an increased risk of arterial and venous thrombotic events, but the implications of vaccination for this increased risk are uncertain. With the approval of NHS England, we quantified associations between COVID-19 diagnosis and cardiovascular diseases in different vaccination and variant eras using linked electronic health records for ~40% of the English population. We defined a 'pre-vaccination' cohort (18,210,937 people) in the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and 'vaccinated' and 'unvaccinated' cohorts (13,572,399 and 3,161,485 people respectively) in the Delta variant era (June-December 2021). We showed that the incidence of each arterial thrombotic, venous thrombotic and other cardiovascular outcomes was substantially elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19, compared with before or without COVID-19, but less markedly elevated in time periods beyond week 4. Hazard ratios were higher after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19 and higher in the pre-vaccination and unvaccinated cohorts than the vaccinated cohort. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of cardiovascular events after COVID-19 infection. People who had COVID-19 before or without being vaccinated are at higher risk of cardiovascular events for at least two years.</p

Challenges in Estimating Effectiveness of 2 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Beyond 6 Months in England

Understanding how effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines changes over time and in response to new SARSCoV-2 variants is crucial to scheduling subsequent doses. A previous study quantified vaccine effectiveness (VE) over six consecutive 4-week periods from 2 to 26 weeks after second dose (1). Waning of hazard ratios (HRs) comparing vaccinated with unvaccinated individuals was approximately log-linear over time, and consistent across COVID-19-related outcomes and risk-based subgroups. To investigate waning beyond 26 weeks and in the omicron era, we extended follow-up to the earliest of 50 weeks after second dose or 31 March 2022

Association of COVID-19 with mental illness in vaccinated and unvaccinated people: A population-based cohort study in OpenSAFELY

Importance: COVID-19 is associated with subsequent mental illness in both hospital- and population-based studies. However, evidence regarding which mental illnesses are associated with COVID-19 by vaccination status in these populations is limited.Objective: Determine which mental illnesses are associated with diagnosed COVID-19 by vaccination status in both hospitalised patients and the general populationDesign: We defined three cohorts: a ‘pre-vaccine availability’ cohort followed during the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ cohorts followed during the Delta variant era (June-December 2021).Setting: With NHS England approval, we used OpenSAFELY-TPP to access linked data from 24 million people registered with English general practices (GPs) using TPP SystmOne.Participants: People registered with an English GP for at least six months and alive with a known age between 18 and 110 years, sex, deprivation, and region at baseline. People were excluded if they had COVID-19 before baseline. Cohort specific criteria also applied.Exposure: Confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis recorded in primary care; secondary care; testing data or the death registry.Main outcomes and measures: Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) comparing the incidence of mental illnesses after diagnosis of COVID-19 with the incidence before or without COVID-19 for depression, serious mental illness, general anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, and suicide. Results: The largest cohort, pre-vaccine availability, included 18,648,606 people with a median age of 49 years. This cohort was 50.2% female. Incidence of most outcomes was elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19 diagnosis, compared with before or without COVID-19, in each cohort. Vaccination mitigated the adverse effects of COVID-19 on mental health: aHRs (95% CIs) for depression and for serious mental illness during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19 were 1.93 (1.88-1.98) and 1.49 (1.41-1.57) in the pre-vaccine availability cohort and 1.79 (1.68-1.90) and 1.45 (1.27-1.65) in the unvaccinated cohort, compared with 1.16 (1.12-1.20) and 0.91 (0.85-0.98) in the vaccinated cohort. Elevation in incidence was higher, and persisted for longer, after hospitalised COVID-19.Conclusions and Relevance: Incidence of mental illnesses is elevated for up to a year following severe COVID-19 in unvaccinated people. Vaccination mitigates the adverse effect of COVID-19 on mental health.<br/

Impact of vaccination on the association of COVID-19 with cardiovascular diseases: An OpenSAFELY cohort study

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated with an increased risk of arterial and venous thrombotic events, but the implications of vaccination for this increased risk are uncertain. With the approval of NHS England, we quantified associations between COVID-19 diagnosis and cardiovascular diseases in different vaccination and variant eras using linked electronic health records for ~40% of the English population. We defined a ‘pre-vaccination’ cohort (18,210,937 people) in the wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and ‘vaccinated’ and ‘unvaccinated’ cohorts (13,572,399 and 3,161,485 people respectively) in the Delta variant era (June-December 2021). We showed that the incidence of each arterial thrombotic, venous thrombotic and other cardiovascular outcomes was substantially elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19, compared with before or without COVID-19, but less markedly elevated in time periods beyond week 4.Hazard ratios were higher after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19 and higher in the pre-vaccination and unvaccinated cohorts than the vaccinated cohort. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of cardiovascular events after COVID-19 infection. People who had COVID-19 before or without being vaccinated are at higher risk of cardiovascular events for at least two years

Impact of vaccination on the association of COVID-19 with cardiovascular diseases:an OpenSAFELY cohort study

Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is associated with an increased risk of arterial andvenous thrombotic events, but the implications of vaccination for this increasedrisk are uncertain. With the approval of NHS England, we quantified associationsbetween COVID-19 diagnosis and cardiovascular diseases in different vaccination and variant eras using linked electronic health records for ~40% of theEnglish population. We defined a ‘pre-vaccination’ cohort (18,210,937 people) inthe wild-type/Alpha variant eras (January 2020-June 2021), and ‘vaccinated’ and‘unvaccinated’ cohorts (13,572,399 and 3,161,485 people respectively) in theDelta variant era (June-December 2021). We showed that the incidence of eacharterial thrombotic, venous thrombotic and other cardiovascular outcomes wassubstantially elevated during weeks 1-4 after COVID-19, compared with beforeor without COVID-19, but less markedly elevated in time periods beyond week 4.Hazard ratios were higher after hospitalised than non-hospitalised COVID-19and higher in the pre-vaccination and unvaccinated cohorts than the vaccinatedcohort. COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of cardiovascular events afterCOVID-19 infection. People who had COVID-19 before or without being vaccinated are at higher risk of cardiovascular events for at least two year

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7