Study: MRNA Vaccines Increase Risk of Contracting COVID-19; Each Booster Shot Raises Risk

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A stunning pre-print study by the Cleveland Clinic published Monday at medRxiv shows that MRNA vaccines raise the risk of contracting COVID-19 and that each MRNA vaccine booster increases the risk of contracting COVID-19, while those who have not received any MRNA vaccine have the lowest risk of contracting COVID-19. While the increased risk was relatively minimal, the result is the opposite of how the vaccines have been sold and mandated by government authorities. The highest risk was for those who received more than three vaccines.

The study was reported by the Cleveland Clinic’s Nabin K. Shrestha, Patrick C. Burke, Amy S. Nowacki, James F. Simon and Amanda Hagen, Steven M. Gordon.

Quote from the study: “The association of increased risk of COVID-19 with higher numbers of prior vaccine doses in our study, was unexpected.”

The study was conducted this fall of 51,011 Cleveland Clinic workers to see how effective the new bivalent MRNA vaccine was in preventing infections. Only 21 percent of workers received the bivalent booster which was seen to only have a 30 percent effectiveness. Overall, five percent of all workers in the study contracted COVID during the 13-week study period.

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This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice

ABSTRACT
Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine protects against COVID-19.

Methods Employees of Cleveland Clinic in employment on the day the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine first became available to employees, were included. The cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was examined over the following weeks. Protection provided by vaccination (analyzed as a time-dependent covariate) was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards regression. The analysis was adjusted for the pandemic phase when the last prior COVID-19 episode occurred, and the number of prior vaccine doses received.

Results Among 51011 employees, 20689 (41%) had had a previous documented episode of COVID-19, and 42064 (83%) had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 occurred in 2452 (5%) during the study. Risk of COVID-19 increased with time since the most recent prior COVID-19 episode and with the number of vaccine doses previously received. In multivariable analysis, the bivalent vaccinated state was independently associated with lower risk of COVID-19 (HR, .70; 95% C.I., .61-.80), leading to an estimated vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 30% (95% CI, 20-39%). Compared to last exposure to SARS-CoV-2 within 90 days, last exposure 6-9 months previously was associated with twice the risk of COVID-19, and last exposure 9-12 months previously with 3.5 times the risk.

Conclusions The bivalent COVID-19 vaccine given to working-aged adults afforded modest protection overall against COVID-19, while the virus strains dominant in the community were those represented in the vaccine.

Summary Among 51011 working-aged Cleveland Clinic employees, the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster was 30% effective in preventing infection, during the time when the virus strains dominant in the community were represented in the vaccine.

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The risk of COVID-19 also varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19

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The multivariable analyses also found that, the more recent the last prior COVID-19 episode was the lower the risk of COVID-19, and that the greater the number of vaccine doses previously received the higher the risk of COVID-19

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