Thanks for digging into this a bit, and I should have linked directly to the paper rather than to an article with the headline “Heart-disease risk soars after COVID” with a focus on relative risks, since as you say the absolute risks are very important for putting things into perspective. For what it’s worth, I agree with Zvi’s final conclusion (“That’s not nothing, but it’s not enough that you shouldn’t live your life”).
That said, an additional 1.2 out of every 100 people experiencing heart failure in the first 12 months after COVID-19 infection, if that holds up in reality, seems like it may have some effects at a population level (suggests that cardiologists will be in more demand, if nothing else). I can imagine that for some people with low risk tolerances, or with high preexisting cardiac risk, it might be a factor in wanting to live one’s life slightly differently than one did prepandemic.
It’d have been nice if they’d included a breakdown of when the vaccinated participants tested positive relative to when they were vaccinated. Supplementary table 21 notes that virtually no one was vaccinated prior to enrollment in the study, but that 62% in the COVID group (56% in the control group) had been vaccinated by the end.
Thanks for digging into this a bit, and I should have linked directly to the paper rather than to an article with the headline “Heart-disease risk soars after COVID” with a focus on relative risks, since as you say the absolute risks are very important for putting things into perspective. For what it’s worth, I agree with Zvi’s final conclusion (“That’s not nothing, but it’s not enough that you shouldn’t live your life”).
That said, an additional 1.2 out of every 100 people experiencing heart failure in the first 12 months after COVID-19 infection, if that holds up in reality, seems like it may have some effects at a population level (suggests that cardiologists will be in more demand, if nothing else). I can imagine that for some people with low risk tolerances, or with high preexisting cardiac risk, it might be a factor in wanting to live one’s life slightly differently than one did prepandemic.
It’d have been nice if they’d included a breakdown of when the vaccinated participants tested positive relative to when they were vaccinated. Supplementary table 21 notes that virtually no one was vaccinated prior to enrollment in the study, but that 62% in the COVID group (56% in the control group) had been vaccinated by the end.