OHA study finds no link between COVID-19 vaccine and cardiac death

During the pandemic, there have been reports of a link between coronavirus vaccines and cardiac deaths, especially among young people, but a new study by the Oregon Health Authority found no link between the two.

the studyThe report, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, examined nearly 1,300 deaths of youth and young adults ages 16 to 30 in Oregon over a 19-month period in 2021-2022. The study found that no one died within the first 100 days. An mRNA COVID-19 vaccine shot that teaches the body how to replicate parts of the virus as a way for the immune system to fight the virus.

Oregon Health Authority researchers undertook the study to answer a lingering question that first surfaced in early 2021, when public health officials made vaccines available to curb the pandemic. Myocarditis (mild inflammation of the heart muscle) occurs rarely among young people, especially men who are 16 years old and 17 years old. However, the side effects turned into rumors that young people who received the vaccine suddenly died of heart attacks.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccinations have spread rapidly on social media, spurred in part by Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin's heart attack during a game in 2023. .

These stories made Dr. Paul Cieslak, the agency's medical director of infectious diseases and immunization, wonder if there was a link. Cieslak and her study co-author, Dr. Juventila Liko of OHA's Division of Acute Infectious Disease Prevention, set out to answer that question by looking at mortality data and COVID-19 vaccinations.

They examined the death certificates of approximately 1,300 people aged 16 to 30 who died between June 2021 and December 2022. We also looked at whether the death occurred within 100 days after vaccination. This is important because side effects of vaccines usually appear within her 6 weeks.

No cases potentially related to COVID-19 vaccination were found. Forty of the deaths were in vaccinated people, but only three had been vaccinated within 100 days before death.

Two of the three had underlying conditions that could cause cardiac arrest. The third death was unexplained and the only case in which researchers could not determine the cause.

However, COVID-19 was listed as the cause of death for 30 young people in the group of about 1,300 people.

“Finding 30 deaths confirms that people in this age group can die from COVID-19,” Cieslak told the Capital Chronicle. “We found no evidence that vaccination caused deaths.”

Of the 30 people who died, researchers are only aware of three who received the coronavirus vaccine. The other eight people have no record in the state's immunization database.

Approximately 1 million people in that age group have received a COVID-19 vaccine during the same period as the study data.

Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Recommend vaccination against the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) It is available to everyone over 6 months of age to prevent serious illness and even death. Older people and people with weakened immune systems are especially at risk and should keep their vaccinations up to date and wait at least four months after their previous vaccination before receiving the most recent dose. there is.

The latest vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Novavax were created to combat the current, ever-changing virus.

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