A peer-reviewed study has found a brain blood clot is far more likely to occur after a COVID-19 infection than a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination.
Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), or a brain blood clot, is an extremely rare but possible side effect of mRNA vaccines.
Researchers at the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore used local hospital data to estimate the rate of the condition after vaccination and then compared it to the rate after infection.
They say six CVT cases were identified among just over 60,000 COVID-19 patients, and nine CVT cases were identified among 3 million people vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna.
The researchers estimate 83.3 people per 100,000 will develop CVT after COVID-19, compared to 2.59 people per 100,000 who get vaccinated.
They say the low rate and disproportionately high age of vaccine recipients could have influenced the study, as could a potential underreporting of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the country.
Blood clots aren't the only risk from COVID-19 infection. Recent research found people infected with COVID show significant changes to regions of the brain that affect memory and smell along with increased cognitive decline.
Researchers at the University of Oxford, University College London (UCL), Imperial College and the National Institutes of Health looked at scans from 785 people aged 51 to 81 in the UK - before and after mostly mild COVID-19 infection.
The peer-reviewed research found significant changes to the areas of the brain that affect memory, smell and a reduction in brain size in people who caught the virus.
The Ministry of Health announced 19,566 new community cases and 930 people in hospital on Thursday.
There were also 23 people in ICU and 10 deaths, taking the total number of publicly reported COVID related deaths to 151.
