COVID-19 increases the risk of heart inflammation more than the Pfizer vaccine

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-26 07:00

International

Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_(2020)_C By U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC BY 2.0

Israeli researchers say data from more than 1.5 million people, half of whom had received the Pfizer COVID-19 jab, suggest the vaccine was not associated with an increased risk of a broad range of adverse events. However, the vaccine was associated with an increased risk of myocarditis - inflammation of the heart muscle - which occurred in one to five people per 100,000 vaccinated persons, the authors say. But catching COVID-19 carried a higher risk of myocarditis - 11 events per 100,000 persons - and also increased the risk of several additional serious adverse events, including pericarditis, arrhythmia, deep-vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, myocardial infarction, intracranial hemorrhage, and thrombocytopenia, the researchers say.

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Journal/
conference: NEJM

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Clalit Health Services, Israel

Funder: Funded by the Ivan and Francesca Berkowitz Family Living Laboratory Collaboration at Harvard Medical School and Clalit Research Institute.

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