Long-term effects of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations on platelets

There is a global concern about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines associated with platelet function. However, their long-term effects on overall platelet activity remain poorly understood. Here we address this problem by image-based single-cell profiling and temporal monitoring of circulating platelet aggregates in the blood of healthy human subjects, before and after they received multiple Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine doses over a time span of nearly 1 year. Results show no significant or persisting platelet aggregation trends following the vaccine doses, indicating that any effects of vaccinations on platelet turnover, platelet activation, platelet aggregation, and platelet-leukocyte interaction was insignificant.

Automated summary

This study used image-based single-cell profiling and temporal monitoring to investigate the long-term effects of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on platelet function. The results showed that there were no significant or persisting platelet aggregation trends following the vaccine doses.