Two major Covid vaccines dramatically increase the risk of dangerous heart inflammation in young men up to the age of 24.
Cases of severe myocarditis and pericarditis are five times more common in young men after they have had the Pfizer jab, and 14 times higher after the Moderna vaccine. The increase in cases after a Covid infection among the unvaccinated was ‘negligible’, said researchers from the Swedish Medical Products Agency.
They tracked 23.12m people from the five Nordic countries for 10 months, 81 percent of whom had received a Covid vaccine, and checked for cases of myocarditis and pericarditis that needed hospital care within 28 days of a Covid jab.
Excess cases of myocarditis were 5.5 times higher per 100,000 vaccinations after a second Moderna dose, and 18.39 higher after a second Pfizer jab. The risk was greatest in young males aged between 15 and 24 years of age. By comparison, just one case per 100,000 was recorded as a result of catching Covid naturally.
Most of the cases happened within the first week after vaccination, and the risk was 13 times greater after a second Pfizer dose and 38 times higher after a second Moderna jab. The risk increased 120-fold if the first dose had been the Pfizer vaccine and the second a Moderna one.
The authors add that any risks from the vaccine need to be weighed against the damage caused by Covid itself—but as those who are most seriously affected by one of the vaccines are also in the low-risk group for a severe Covid infection, it would seem it’s safer to get the virus.
(Source: JAMA Cardiology, 2022; doi: 10.1001/jamacardio.2022.0583)
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