My dad had the initial Covid vaccine offered at the start of pandemic followed by 2 boosters. He has not had any boosters since then. (His details are on my profile).
In June this year his Afib became persistent and a couple of weeks later he was Covid positive for the first time.
He is now on a waiting list for Cardioversion.
With winter season starting, I was wondering whether he should get a Covid booster vaccine.
If you've have persistent Afib and have had a Covid booster vaccines in the past couple of years, what has your experience been and have you had any adverse events?
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priya_uk
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I had persistent Afib for a year prior to an ablation and had no adverse effect to Covid booster vaccines in that time. The only possible issue was having flu and Covid vaccines at the same appointment, and since then have insisted on having them a few weeks apart.
All a rather personal lottery with of course a level of what should be a personalised risk/benefit review performed by the medical professional.
Also maybe ask the doctor/cardio about the Number Needed To Treat and the Absolut Risk Reduction numbers which exists for all pharmaceutical interventions.
Ensure it is not the Relative Risk Reduction number which without full scale understanding of the trials are rather meaningless alas sadly often used for marketing.
Here, chronic side effects from the first jab and learning much more over the years will now not have any modified RNA (MRNA) injections.
With an already unsettled heart, I would not be persuading your Dad to go for the jab.
There is a lot of mud swirling around on Covid jabs being good or making you more prone to catch it.
Personally, I won't be having any and instead suggest he doubles down on Vit D, Vit C, high quality unprocessed food and sensible old fashioned precautions.
No adverse events at all in my case or anyone I know. I am convinced the jab is safe, but there seems to be questions over the actual need for continued boosters. From what I can read, the need is in those with a specific medical profile and the boosters will only be offered freely to them. If your father is in that range of individuals, he will be offered the booster by the NHS and should in that case, take it.
apart from the first covid jab I have had weeks of afib/tachycardia do not having any more boosters. I’ve had 4 and the last one even messed up my pacemaker.
Hello, I posted on here last week wondering if the terrible sore throat I had was a reaction to my gp upping my bisoprolol to 10mg last Wednesday and felt really ill Saturday so took my last in date COVID test and yes full blown COVID been very ill with it and still am so very worried as I have afib and lvsd all recently diagnosed, my last booster was last October, trouble is there are new strains surfacing again the one I have is awful, going to gp this morning for follow up ecg and blood tests, bhf cardiac nurses wonderful about what over the counter meds you can't take with heart meds and reassurance with them on the end of the phone and you lovely people on here i don't know how I would have coped these last few months as i havent seen a cardiologist or anything and going to my gp last week was a fluke.
It's a difficult one about the vaccine it has to be personal choice now when I was in a and e the nurse had afib and told me not to have the vaccine again as it's a risk which I thought was very irresponsible and told her so.
The only place I went to last week was the doctor on Wednesday and tested positive Saturday!
Good luck with your decision I'm sure you'll make the right one for your dad
Thank you. It's a tricky one. Sorry to hear about your ordeal with Covid and wishing you speedy recovery. Agree BHF are very good indeed and so are the people on this forum.
I worked as a carer at the time so had to have the jab never had a reaction did test positive for covid but wasn't ill however I have controlled persistent AF diagnosed a year ago I won't be having any covid jabs again also I blame my AF on the jab I will be having the flue jab though
I have asymptomatic Afib, it comes and goes daily and it started pre Covid. I can see it on my watch. In recent years I’ve had all my vaccinations,…Covid, flu, pneumonia, shingles etc plus jabs for visits to other countries …cholera, typhoid etc. I can’t think of any adverse events from any of them other than maybe a sore arm. I haven’t noticed any increase or decrease in my afib.
I had emergency open heart surgery two years ago and needed proof of covid vaccination when I was admitted but in most cases it’s a personal decision based on assessment of the risk. I would seek advice from a cardiologist or the British Heart Foundation.
sorry to hear you had to have open heart surgery hope everything's OK with you now I'm so lucky no other heart problems and AF well controlled with meds best of luck to you
thanks. All going well now. I’m feeling so much better. I suppose my point about seeking advice is that my decisions need to be based on scientific evidence. So I am inclined to take advice from the people who carried out my heart op based on their training which is grounded in research and experience. If I trusted them to slice me open and do what they did, then it makes sense to trust them on medications.
I have relied on the Moderna version and never had any reaction other than the sore arm and feeling a bit icky. Of course that’s true for all the vaccines I’ve had (and I’ve had them all, it seems).
my dad was in permanent Afib and he died a little while after his second booster. He was in really good health apart from the afib, he went out socialising everyday. He just passed in his sleep sitting in his chair. The weird thing was - a gentleman we knew was in the queue for booster two people up from us and he died exactly the same way a week previous. These could be coincidental but I’m not going near vaccine booster.
Aside from my own reaction to the second Pfizer (shortness of breath and back in AF), the stats for severe reactions and deaths after each vaccine rollout are very disturbing. WHO is already talking a out the next pandemic and more shots. I don't like the sound of it.
Not so much. If we get sick, there are a lot of measures to take that are OTC right in our own pharmacies. I have a friend who has done a ton of reesearch. When he starts to feel "off" he takes zinc and quercetin and sails through whatever is going around. I keep a supply on hand, along with a nasal rinse kit and oil of oregano. It's also important to keep your vitamin D levels up. I've had the virus twice and have recovered without concerns. I'd much rather do that than do further harm to my heart.
When the pandemic first appeared and there were many people near my age group being hospitaluzed, on ventilators, losing their lives, etc., i took the first two shots. I was petrified like so many others throughout the world. However, now that i have more info including uncertainties, at this time, i will not be taking any more Covid vaccines. I don't know enough to take the risk. Every year, i face pressure from my PCP to take it, but i politely tell her at the current time, i will not get it, but i will remain aware of the situation and may opt to take it later. That usually works to stop the pressure.Having said that, it is a personal decision whether to take it or not. In my opinion, taking usual precautions such as hand cleaning, avoiding large crowds, maintaing a good immune response is vital to lowering your risk of infection.
I have always had persistent AF and now in permanent AF but back at the beginning I had 3 cardioversions which kept me in NSR for 3 out of 4 years I had no problems whatsoever with the Covid vaccinations - I think I have had 8 or possibly 9 now whatever none of them I had whilst in NSR after the cardioversions caused me to go back into AF - I have had all the ones offered to me and annual flu vaccinations and have had no problems with them at all.
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