Big data study refutes anti-vax blood clot claims about COVID-19 vaccines

A study led by UB researchers has confirmed that, contrary to claims by anti-vaccine proponents, COVID-19 vaccines pose only trivial risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), or blood clots. In addition, the study found that becoming infected with COVID-19 poses a significant risk of blood clots. The paper was published online Feb. 1 in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. “This population-based study found only a trivial risk for VTE following COVID-19 vaccination,” says Peter L. Elkin, first author on the paper and UB Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. “Given the large risk of VTE from COVID-19 infection, the risk-benefit ratio strongly favored vaccination,” says Elkin, also a physician with UBMD Internal Medicine. The study was launched in order to investigate whether or not receiving a COVID-19 vaccine put one at higher risk for developing VTE, a claim that had...