EYECARE: Coronavirus BRIEFING: Crisis Response Tactics Possible Bivalent Vaccine Link to Strokes in People Over 65 By Staff Tuesday, January 17, 2023 7:59 AM A vaccine database found a possible link between the Pfizer/BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 vaccine and ischemic strokes in people over 65 who got the shot, the CDC and the FDA said in a joint news release.The release did not recommend people change their vaccine practices, saying the database finding probably did not represent a “true clinical risk.” The CDC said everybody, including people over 65, should stay up to date on their COVID vaccines, including the bivalent booster.The news release said the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), “a near real-time surveillance system,” raised a safety concern about the Pfizer/BioNTech booster.“Rapid-response investigation of the signal in the VSD raised a question of whether people 65 and older who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent were more likely to have an ischemic stroke in the 21 days following vaccination compared with days 22-44 following vaccination,” the news release said.Ischemic strokes are blockages of blood to the brain, often caused by blood clots. Head over to WebMD to read the full story.