The Safety of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines: Vigilance Is Still Required

J Clin Med. 2022 Feb 25;11(5):1248. doi: 10.3390/jcm11051248.

Abstract

The opinion I put forward in this paper is that attention must continue to be paid to clinical observations compatible with a detrimental effect of anti-SARS-CoV-2 in certain diseases of immunological nature. Using the example of the atypical thrombocytopenic thromboses caused by adenoviral-vector-based vaccines, I argue that usual post-marketing pharmacovigilance programs may fail in identifying very rare vaccine-related disorders. Since the robust protective immunity induced by mRNA vaccines is related to their distinct capacity to induce strong stimulation of T follicular helper cells, I suggest that the safety of mRNA vaccines should be further assessed by appropriately designed epidemiological and mechanistic studies focusing on lymphoproliferative and autoimmune diseases in which T follicular helper cells were found to play a key role.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; T cell; autoimmunity; mRNA lymphoma; vaccine.