Day 441: Even the Queen

Female researchers at a couple of US universities have launched a formal study of COVID vaccines' unexpected effects on women's periods. (Women of childbearing age can participate in the research here.) Not surprisingly, platelets may be a factor:

There isn’t much research on how vaccination affects menstruation. But vaccines do stress the immune system, and the menstrual cycle sometimes responds to those types of changes. “The menstrual cycle is really dynamic, and it responds to tons of things,” Lee says.

There’s also a potential relationship between the nanoparticles used in the COVID-19 vaccines and changes in bleeding patterns. In some people, the nanoparticles end up creating a temporary immune reaction that kills off platelets, a type of blood cell involved in clotting, Clancy says. They regenerate quickly, but if someone has a bleeding event like a period just after they get a shot, it could make it heavier. She’ll be collaborating with Anirban Sen Gupta, a platelet researcher at Case Western Reserve University, to try to understand that potential mechanism.

Of course the real question is how such a pervasive side effect failed to come up in the initial trials considering that, apparently, women have been "regularly included in clinical trials [since] the 90's." Such glaring oversights don't exactly inspire confidence in the vaccines.

Massachusetts cases were up three-tenths of a percentage point yesterday, on what would have been tax day were we back to normal. Instead, the Commonwealth has followed the federal government in moving tax day to May 17th this year.