With input from Dr Monica Vasudev

1487:  Women and COVID vs. vaccine

1. CDC: Side effects from the vaccines appear to be worse in women. For example, 63 out of 66 reported cases of anaphylaxis occurred in women.
2. Men in acute disease suffer worse outcomes. Men appear to have three times greater likelihood of being admitted into the ICU compared to women.
3. Men appear to be more vulnerable to severe outcomes from viral infections, as evidenced in SARS epidemic in 2003 and in MERS epidemic.
4. Immune response seems to be stronger in women as compared to men. Is it related to the two X chromosomes with the hormones that women have more of? The answer is both.
5. X chromosome is enriched for immune response genes.
6. Before menopause, every immune cell in our bodies has receptors for estrogen and progesterone hormones. These hormones regulate the functioning of immune cells. They can turn the responses on and off. This holds true for androgens as well, like testosterone in men. Testosterone is anti-inflammatory and turns off several initial antiviral, inflammatory types of immune responses that trigger and let the body detect that there is something foreign you need to mount a protective response.
7. So, women have two X chromosomes allowing additional activation to protect against immune function and response, and they also have the hormones that turn on response to target the virus; and men have the hormone that turns off the ability to target the virus?
8. In women, the responses that get turned on and help protect against a virus, can become dangerous when they mount against oneself, as in autoimmune diseases.
9. In SLE, there arenine-to-one women to men. Thats where one starts attacking own DNA. In multiple sclerosis, one is attacking the lining of one’s nerve fibers. About 80% of all autoimmune disease patients are women.
10. Significantly more women suffer from long COVID compared to men.
11. Anecdotal reports suggest that women with COVID-19 have reported changes to their menstrual cycles. The parts of the brain that are associated with induction of fever are also the parts that control the hormonal regulation of menstrual cycle. So, it is feasible to see a connection. The connection between the immune system and reproductive function is known.
12. Many vaccine adverse events are mediated by inflammation. If women have more of the inflammatory responses which are required to protect you against infection, that could be accountable for the development of these types of adverse reactions.
13. In 1993, Revitalization Act required inclusion of women in all clinical trials.
14. In 1977, it was determined that women of reproductive ages should not be included in clinical trials. This was meant to protect pregnant women and their developing fetuses from any potential toxicological effects of drugs or in the case of vaccines, biologics. But eventually, women were completely excluded from clinical trials and we were not given autonomy to make a decision for themselves, to claim that they wanted or didnt want to be included.
15. Government Accounting Office audit in 2016 of all NIH uncovered that now more women than men enrol in clinical trials.
16. But whats not happening is that there is no separation of the outcome data from men and women and comparison of those data.
17. So, publication of data from clinical trials often don’t tell us whether a drug or whether a vaccine or an intervention worked equally well in men and women. Or if there were differences in adverse events. Usually that becomes known only after a drug or a vaccine or an intervention has come out in to the market.
18. In COVID vaccines, women werent really given the choice to participate. Pregnant women were not subjected to the vaccines by their own choice. And now, women are going to get the vaccine who are pregnant and have a higher risk of COVID and severe outcomes from COVID; they dont really know how the vaccine works in pregnancy. (Medpage Today)

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA