geoffrey modest medical blogs

  A recent Danish study found that elderly patients given the high-dose influenza vaccine had reduced incidence of cardiorespiratory hospitalizations when compared to those given the standard-dose vaccine (see influenza vaccine high-dose helps in elderly JAMACardiol2025  in dropbox, or doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2025.3460) Details: --332,438 participants at least 65-year-old were assessed through a prespecified secondary analysis of the DANFLU-2 study, a pragmatic, open-label, individually randomized clinical trial using nationwide administrative health registries in Denmark during the 2022/2023 to 2024/2025 Influenza seasons -- patients were randomized to receiving a high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV) versus the standard-dose IIV (SD-IIV) -- severe cardiovascular outcomes were prespecified secondary and exploratory endpoints in the DANFLU-2 trial, when occurring at least 14 days after vaccination and through May 31 of the following year -- there were no formal exclu...

  In these times of anti-science promoted by the head of the Office of Health and Human Services (RFK, Jr), I thought it was important to bring up a few studies reinforcing the non-infection-related benefits of vaccines, beyond their well-documented specific infectious disease benefits.   A recent very large observational South Korean study found that live zoster vaccination was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events for at least the next eight years (see  zoster vaccine dec cardiovasc outcome EurSocCardiol2025  in dropbox or   https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf230 )   Details : -- this nationwide, population-based cohort data-mining study included 2,207,784 individuals encompassing 98% of the South Korean population, compared individuals who had versus didn’t have live zoster vaccine but subsequently had herpes zoster (HZ) infection     -- data were collected from a combination of the national insurance information (outpat...