Covid vaccines not linked to fatal heart problems in young people, CDC finds
The new report debunks widespread misinformation that the mRNA shots were connected to sudden cardiac death in young athletes.
...
Ever since the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were authorized in late 2020, anti-vaccination groups in the U.S. have blamed the shots for fatal heart problems in young athletes.
...
The findings in the new report come from the analysis of nearly 1,300 death certificates of Oregon residents ages 16 to 30 who died from any heart condition or unknown reasons between June 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022.
During this time period, nearly 1 million teens and young adults in the state had gotten a Covid vaccine, the authors wrote.
...
The authors refined their focus to people who got an mRNA Covid vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna and died within 100 days of being vaccinated.
Out of 40 deaths that occurred among people who got an mRNA Covid vaccine, three occurred within that time frame.
Two of the deaths were attributed to chronic underlying health conditions.
The third death was recorded as an “undetermined natural cause,” with toxicology tests returning negative for alcohol, cannabis, methamphetamine or other illicit substances.
The medical examiner could neither confirm nor exclude Covid vaccination as the cause of death; however, none of the death certificates attributed the fatalities to the vaccines.
While it remains unclear whether the vaccine caused the third death, Cieslak noted that the analysis showed that 30 people died from Covid during the time frame, the majority of whom were not vaccinated.
“When you’re balancing risks and benefits, you have to look at that and go, ‘You got to bet on the vaccine,’” he said.
Dr. Leslie Cooper, the chair of the cardiology department at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who was not involved in the study, said the researchers were actually “quite generous” in their analysis, adding that the 100-day time frame following vaccination was a large one.
“They went above and beyond to try and capture any possible cardiac death from vaccinations,” he said....