JGrice wrote:Here's where I'm falling on this FOR ME (I'm not a doctor, just someone who has the annoying habit of incessantly asking "why"):...2. For my age group, I have a less than 1% chance of dying from COVID.
3. Every vaccine currently being tested (Moderna, Pfizer, J&J, A-Z) contains mercury and aluminum - ummm.... I thought those weren't good for apoe4?
...P.S. According to the VAERS database (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), as of early last week there had been 4,178 deaths from the COVID vaccine in the last four months, compared to 4,182 deaths in the last 20 years (!) from all other vaccines. Don't take my word for it, please look it up.
P.P.S. I'm not an anti-vax person. I never hesitated to keep my kids "fully vaccinated" when they were growing up.
Welcome, JGrice!
Thanks for joining the discussion. As a 69 year old woman with ApoE 4/4, I agree with your asking "why?"--and would guess it brings on some good conversations! A few years ago I asked a young academic Alzheimer's researcher about how looking at just ApoE 4 might change a particular study. His response was "You ask good questions!" And then he offered what I think we all know: there's a lot we know, and as we learn more, we find there's a lot more we still have to learn.
COVID-19 and the vaccines which have received "emergency authorization use" (EAU) approval are certainly in the "more to be learned" category. Astra-Zeneca, for example, has not yet received an EAU approval and the FDA has requested a large amount of additional data from its use in Europe and elsewhere, to determine the risk of serious side effects. I saw news this week that if it is approved, the US will ship 60 million doses already prepared to other countries which have also approved Astra-Zeneca for humanitarian use.
I was curious about the issue of aluminum and mercury (or thimerisol) and found a CDC reference that said small amounts of thimerisol are only in multiple dose flu vaccines (presumably like the quadrivalent flu vaccine I had last fall for the over-65 group!)
For me, it was helpful to see this on the FDA website about the Pfizer vaccine, which I had with only mild, brief soreness for about 10 hours after the second shot:
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS IN THE PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE?
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine includes the following ingredients: mRNA, lipids ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2 [(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.
https://www.fda.gov/media/144414/download#page=2
Here's the comparable pages for Moderna and J&J:
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS IN THE MODERNA COVID-19 VACCINE?
The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine contains the following ingredients: messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), lipids (SM-102, polyethylene glycol [PEG] 2000 dimyristoyl glycerol [DMG], cholesterol, and 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine [DSPC]), tromethamine, tromethamine hydrochloride, acetic acid, sodium acetate trihydrate, and sucrose.
https://www.fda.gov/media/144638/download#page=2
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS IN THE JANSSEN COVID-19 VACCINE?
The Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine includes the following ingredients: recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus type 26 expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, citric acid monohydrate, trisodium citrate dihydrate, ethanol, 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HBCD), polysorbate-80, sodium chloride.
https://www.fda.gov/media/146305/downlo ... 0chloride.
The only other info I have to offer is that the VAERS system is open to all posts and used by researchers to check out what appear to be clusters of side effects or complications. The question I would want to have answered is which of the reported 4,178 deaths after vaccination have been verified through death certificates which list that as the primary or secondary cause. I checked the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (a resource I discovered years ago that is very wonky and had data I needed on traumatic brain injuries in kids.)
It's got an interesting report from May 7 on the J&J vaccine, excerpted below. I don't expect that the numbers quoted are perfect, but it suggests that the biggest issue with J&J is the rare anaphylactic reaction and the clotting issue. As someone with a daughter with an Epi-Pen who is under 40, I was glad she took a Pfizer vaccine, and like me had no problem with it.
VAERS is a national passive surveillance program managed by CDC and FDA that monitors adverse events after all vaccinations (9). VAERS reports are accepted from health care providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public. Under EUAs for each COVID-19 vaccine, health care providers are required to report several types of adverse events to VAERS, including all deaths.** Signs and symptoms in VAERS reports are coded using the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA).†† VAERS staff members attempt to obtain medical records and supporting information from health care providers for all reported serious events, as well as death certificates and autopsy reports for all deaths...
A review of postauthorization safety data after administration of 7.98 million doses of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine during March–April 2021 found that the most commonly reported reactions were similar to those observed in the preauthorization trials. Among processed VAERS reports, 97% were classified as nonserious events. However, reports included 17 events consistent with TTS, a newly defined condition, including three reports of non-CVST thrombotic events with thrombocytopenia among women aged <60 years during the pause in Janssen vaccine use. Among 88 deaths reported after vaccination, three occurred in patients with [cerebral venous sinus thrombosis] CVST; after preliminary reviews, no other deaths appear to have an association with vaccination.
Safety Monitoring of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 Vaccine — United States, March–April 2021
I hope you continue to post; we have a lot to learn from someone with your diet and exercise routines and ability to seek out information from multiple sources! FWIW, I would put your chances of having Alzheimer's a far less than 30% given your risk reduction choices!