No link between COVID vaccine, cardiac arrest in young people, new CDC study finds

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new data addressing the link, or lack thereof, between the COVID-19 vaccine and sudden cardiac death in otherwise healthy young adults.

The assessment, conducted between June 2021 and December 2022, investigated the death certificates and vaccination records of 1,292 Oregon decedents aged between 16 and 30 who had died of "cardiac or undetermined" causes.

"The data do not support an association of COVID-19 vaccination with sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons," determined the CDC. The vaccine is still recommended for everyone aged over 6 months.

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CDC studies cardiac deaths and the COVID vaccine

The CDC said in its analysis that reports of myocarditis, specifically in young men, made their way to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) around the time the vaccine became available to youths in 2021. Myocarditis, also known as inflammatory cardiomyopathy, is often caused by viral infections and results in inflammation and damage to the heart muscle.

These reports, paired with later media coverage of sudden deaths among previously healthy young athletes that were implied as being caused by the vaccine, prompted the CDC to launch the investigation.

Using death certificates and mandatory vaccination records from Oregon, the CDC identified people within the 16 to 30 age group with causes of death listed as “sudden death,” “arrhythmia,” “dysrhythmia,” “asystole,” “cardiac arrest,” “myocarditis,” “congestive heart failure,” “unknown,” “undetermined,” or “pending."

The 1,292 Oregon cases were then separated by gender: 925 (72%) were males and 367 (28%) were females. Investigators then pulled records of mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations of these cases within 100 days before death.

• Of the 925 young men in the study, two people received the mRNA COVID vaccine within 100 days of their death and a cardiac diagnosis could not be excluded from the cause of death, the study found.
• Of the 367 young women in the student, one person received the mRNA COVID vaccine within 100 days of her death and a cardiac diagnosis could not be excluded from the cause of death, the study found.

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As of July 17, 2023, no fatal cases of myocarditis in Oregon had been reported to VAERS. Furthermore, a total of 979,289 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered to Oregonians aged 16 to 30 years in the period of time between May 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022.

The CDC said that data collected from 40 U.S. healthcare systems between Jan. 2021 and Jan. 2022 showed that the risk for cardiac complications in people over age 5 was significantly higher after COVID-19 infection than after the COVID vaccine.

These findings are in line with past research about the safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccine. As such, the CDC recommends vaccination and booster shots for people over six months to prevent COVID-19 and serious complications or deaths.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No link between COVID vaccine, cardiac arrest in young people, new CDC study finds