South Korean Study Finds COVID Shots Linked to Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive Impairment
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From [HERE] A South Korean peer-reviewed study found statistically significant increases in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment in people who received a COVID-19 vaccine — particularly mRNA vaccines — within three months of post-vaccination.
The South Korean researchers — who on May 28 published their findings in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine — said they undertook the study due to concerns of COVID-19 vaccine side effects, “particularly potential links to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Medical commentator John Campbell, Ph.D., who analyzed the study on a July 22 episode of his YouTube show, asked why Western countries such as the U.S. or U.K. aren’t investigating such potential links. “Why is it often the Asian countries that seem to be leading the way in openness on this?”
According to Campbell, part of what’s preventing Western countries is that governments and pharmaceutical companies have refused to release low-level participant data. “Could it be that researchers in the West are working under limitations?”
In the South Korean study, researchers analyzed data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service from more than half a million residents of Seoul, South Korea, age 65 and older.
The study participants were randomly selected, Campbell said. “That’s important. The sample was random so it shouldn’t have any systematic biases.”
After dividing the individuals into vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, the researchers compared the incidence of both mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease between the groups.
Mild cognitive impairment is sometimes a stage in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, some people with mild cognitive impairment get better over time.
Those in the vaccinated group received either an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and/or a cDNA vaccine. However, the researchers later looked at just those who had received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and found there to be an especially high incidence of cognitive decline when compared to the unvaccinated.
mRNA shots linked to a more than double rate of mild cognitive impairment
The authors of the South Korean study reported that after three months of receiving the vaccine, the mRNA vaccine group showed a roughly 22% increase in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (odds ratio: 1.225, p-value = 0.026) compared with the unvaccinated.
“This is significant because developing Alzheimer’s disease over three months is a very rapid development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Campbell said.
Similarly, the mRNA vaccine group after three months post-vaccination showed nearly 2.4 times the rate of mild cognitive impairment compared with the unvaccinated (odds ratio: 2.377, p-value < 0.001).
The researchers found no significant link between COVID-19 vaccination and vascular dementia or Parkinson’s disease, “which is encouraging,” Campbell said.
The researchers concluded that their study “suggests a potential link between COVID-19 vaccination, particularly mRNA vaccines, and increased incidences” of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. [more]
