Neglected benefits
The researchers, led by St. Louis VA epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly, also looked at MACE and deaths without documented cases of COVID-19. In this case, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines were greater, suggesting that COVID-19 cases may have gone undetected or undiagnosed. The injections appeared to reduce the MACE rate from 382 per 10,000 to 358, and the death rate from 223 to 207.
“Extrapolating these estimates to a population of 1 million people, vaccination could plausibly be associated with the prevention of approximately 2,370 MACE events and 1,580 deaths over an 8-month period,” the researchers note, although they urge caution when interpreting the finding.
The study has limitations, including the fact that the majority of the U.S. veteran population is older, white, and male, making it likely that the findings cannot be generalized to the entire population. Still, the findings indicate that the vaccines continue to offer cardiovascular protection against COVID-19, which should factor into people’s decisions about whether to receive an annual COVID-19 booster. A complementary study Also published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the vaccines still directly protect against COVID-19, reducing the risk of hospitalization and critical illness by 35 and 41 percent, respectively.
In an accompanying editorialRobert Califf, a cardiologist and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, wrote that the data from the two studies “provide strong evidence of a favorable balance between benefit and risk of updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the entire population.” But he lamented that despite that strong evidence, national opinions are being influenced by the “broad anti-vaccine statements of the United States Department of Health and Human Services,” led by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Only 17.5 percent of adults and 22.6 percent of people over 65 in the US have received the 2025-2026 COVID vaccine. according to federal data.
“The politicization of COVID-19 vaccination and messenger RNA vaccines in general has affected the longevity and functional status of people in the United States,” Califf wrote. He called on researchers to collect more data on the benefits of the vaccine and to engage with the public about the findings, particularly on social media, to combat anti-vaccine rhetoric.
