Covid vaccination may increase risk of sudden cardiac death among young women, official data showed today. Government analysts have been digging into data since England’s historic introduction in an effort to revisit the safety profile of vaccinations for those aged under 30.
Experts found a higher risk of heart-related deaths among women with a certain type of vaccination.
Data collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that women given a non-MRNA jab were 3.5 times more likely to die from such a condition within 12 weeks after vaccination.
This was in comparison with those after this time period, compared with those not vaccinated. Looking at the data in this manner allowed the ONS team to find any obvious associations with vaccination.
Some deaths linked to vaccines may have been missed from official figures, so it was necessary to look at the data another way.
Non-mRNA jabs included those made by AstraZeneca and Novavax, the only two that were available in the time frame covered by the study. Although, the analysis did not include data for the specific brands of the vaccines.
Writing in the journal Nature, ONSs team concluded that 11 of the young women’s cardiac deaths could have been due to the non-MRNA jab.
However, the study did not prove definitively that any deaths were caused by any vaccination. The deaths may, for instance, have been caused by unrelated medical conditions, or even Covid itself, given the fact that this virus is known to produce cardiac-like effects.
Researchers said the younger women given non-MRNA vaccines during the time of the trial were generally classified as being clinically vulnerable, so were given priority to receive the vaccine.
This factor could have explained their increased risk of death, the team suggested. No such increased risk was found in men. The scientists did not provide reasons for this, though, because it was outside of the analysis. Nor did they find evidence that the mRNA injections, like those made by Pfizer and Moderna, carried this risk. That refuted a conspiracy theory, beloved by anti vaxxers, that the mRNA shots were responsible for the surge in sudden deaths.
The researchers chose to study a 12-week time frame after the vaccine, since this was the initial period of time established between vaccine doses.
The analysis is based on data between December 8, 2020, when the Covid vaccine was first introduced, and May 25, last year. It included people aged between 12 and 29 in England, and researchers looked specifically at that cohort as a response to a number of studies that have pointed to the risk of heart disease among younger people following the Covid vaccine.
Furthermore, the mRNA vaccines may cause myocarditis. This heart inflammation is a particular risk to young men and boys. And AstraZeneca’s vaccine was pulled from under-40s in the U.K. in April 2021, after it was linked to the rare, but potentially fatal, risk of blood clots.
Vahe Nafilyan, senior statistician for the ONS, said that in general, research shows that mRNA vaccines, now used in most young British people who are being vaccinated, are usually safe.
We found no evidence that there was an increased risk of heart disease or all-cause mortality weeks after mRNA vaccine vaccination, he said. However, they did find, he added, that younger women who received a Covid jab without the mRNA had 3.52 times more risk of heart mortality 12 weeks later.
This amounts to 6 cardiac deaths for every 100,000 women who receive at least a first dose of non-MRNA vaccine.
The ONS analysis did not address why women appear to have been at greater risk for heart failure after the first, non-mRNA Covid jab than men.
While data did indeed report that men had a predicted 1.18-fold increased risk of cardiac death after their first non-mRNA Covid jab, the ONS said that evidence was not robust enough to make a link, because those fewer deaths may simply have been due to randomness.
The ONS analysis also includes data about death risks after positive Covid tests, both in vaccinated and non-vaccinated young adults. Those without a Covid vaccine had a 2.5-fold higher risk of death from any cause, while in comparison, those who were injected had a just a 1.9-fold higher risk of dying.
The ONS did not specifically analyze deaths by heart in those who were vaccinated and tested positive, because data was not available.
One limitation of the study is that certain deaths that occurred during the time frame analyzed may have been missed because of unfinished coroner investigations. Professor Finn, who sits on the advisory body of UK vaccinators, the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said that, ultimately, further details were needed about cardiac deaths reported.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been effectively pulled from use in the UK, with no further doses ordered by the government. This is on advice from JCVI, who did not include AstraZeneca on the recommended jab lists for the Booster Campaign.
There are now two Covid jabs that are non-mRNA approved for use in the UK. These are Novavax and the Sanofi/GSK jab.
The British medicines watchdog, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has no safety reports on Sanofi/GSKs jab, which was approved for use just in December of last year. Novavax was approved last February and was deployed 1200 times in an autumn booster campaign, with 57 safety reports. The ONS said it will continue to track data about the results of the Covid vaccine going forward.
