Janil Puthucheary on alleged stroke risk from bivalent COVID-19 vaccines

Data accrued in Singapore so far shows no increased risk of ischemic stroke from taking the bivalent Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, the latest safety report by the Health Sciences Authority shows that the rate of severe adverse events after taking bivalent vaccines is about one in 100,000, lower than that of the original vaccines at about seven in 100,000. No cases of ischemic stroke have been found in patients who received vaccine injury payouts, and the authorities monitor safety signals not just among this group but across the entire population receiving COVID-19 vaccines. These details were given by Senior Minister of State for Health Janil Puthucheary in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 7) in response to MPs’ questions. He said US authorities had also not found a stroke risk after a preliminary signal reported by one vaccine monitoring centre in the country on strokes in individuals aged 65 and above. Dr Janil said with a well-developed and transparent safety monitoring system now in place, regulators around the world highlight observations on COVID-19 vaccines once they detect them, even if those observations are not yet fully investigated.