I found this “research letter” at Circulation interesting:
Changes from the preceding year in both systolic and diastolic BP showed no differences between 2019 and January to March 2020 (P=0.8 for systolic and P=0.3 for diastolic BP; Figure). In contrast, annual BP increase was significantly higher in April to December 2020 than 2019 (P<0.0001 for systolic and diastolic BP). During the pandemic period, mean changes each month, compared with the previous year, ranged from 1.10 to 2.50 mmHg for systolic BP and 0.14 to 0.53 mmHg for diastolic BP; systolic and diastolic BP increases held true for men and women and across age groups; larger increases were seen in women for both systolic and diastolic BP, in older participants for systolic BP, and in younger participants for diastolic BP (all P<0.0001).
There were a few other factors I wish they had analyzed in addition to sex and age. I guess we’ll need to wait for those.
It’s interesting to read this post correlating BP with the pandemic. Last week, during a weekly breakfast with a girlfriend, she mentioned her BP had gone up recently because of the stresses associated with the pandemic. Because of this she thought she would probably have to look at taking meds to lower it.
The changing conditions and lifestyles derived from this pandemic has had so many ill effects other than simply contacting the virus. Elective surgeries and health screenings have been delayed. Businesses have gone under. Education has suffered, especially among low income children. Mental health has deteriorated producing more suicides, drug overdoses, and domestic abuse. And, yes I believe it has been a stressor effecting many people’s BP.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/post-pandemic-stress-disorder-heart-conditions-covid-london-physicians-b969436.html
On a pandemic related note. Matthew Yglesias looked into the CDC vaccination numbers and came to two conclusions.
a) It is likely overestimating the number of vaccinated by quite a bit
b) CDC doesn’t know what is likely the actual number (and confused everyone else by changing non-sensical % vaccinated from > 100% to 99.9%)
https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-cdcs-vaccine-data-is-all-wrong
It just boggles the mind that this far into the pandemic and governments can’t figure out how to do these basic yet critical tasks.