Reports that myopericarditis may be a side effect of COVID-19 vaccination are downplayed by a recently published study that suggests there might not be a correlation.
Reports that myopericarditis may be a side effect of COVID-19 vaccination are downplayed by a recently-published study that suggests there might not be a correlation.
Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS), led by Kollengode Ramanathan, M.D., and Ryan Ruiyang Ling, pooled data from 22 studies that administered more than 400 million vaccines to determine if there is, indeed, merit to claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause myopericarditis.
They found none. In fact, what the data told them was that not only were incidences of myopericarditis low following a COVID-19 vaccine, but the incidence was the same as with the other types of vaccines, like influenza.
The data came from international studies from Jan. 1, 1947, to Dec. 31, 2021, and also included studies that reported on people who had myopericarditis in temporal relation to vaccines. The scientists, under the study Prospero, used the DerSimonian and Laird random-effects meta-analyses, Joanna Briggs Institute checklist and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations approach to evaluate the data.
“Compared with COVID-19 vaccination, the incidence of myopericarditis was significantly higher following smallpox vaccinations but was not significantly different after influenza vaccinations. Among people who received COVID-19 vaccines, the incidence of myopericarditis was significantly higher in males, in those younger than 30 years, after receiving an mRNA vaccine and after a second dose of vaccine (versus a first or third dose),” the report read.
Overall, the risk of myopericarditis post-COVID-19 vaccination is low, although younger males have an increased incidence. Regardless of these findings, the risk of rare adverse events such as this one should be balanced against the risks of getting infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“Being aware of a possible association between COVID-19 vaccination and myopericarditis, clinicians might have had an inherently lower threshold for investigating a patient with non-specific chest pain after COVID-19 vaccination, eventually leading to a diagnosis of myopericarditis. Additionally, given current robust vaccine surveillance systems and the fact that COVID-19 vaccines have received a much higher degree of scrutiny than previous vaccines, the possibility of relative under-reporting of adverse events following non-COVID-19 vaccinations cannot be excluded, despite mass vaccination of more than 6 billion people in the past year,” the report added.
In an editorial about the evaluation, titled “Myopericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination: unexpected but not unprecedented,” Margaret Ryan and Jay Montgomery said that the lack of literature on the possible correlations between myopericarditis and vaccines over the last 75 years may be the reason why many claims on their links are based on mere theories. With that said, a more thorough investigation of the adverse effects of immunizations should be conducted.
“Because smallpox vaccination has very limited global application in the modern era, the experience of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination must now propel the field forward. Analyses of the pathology and immunological mechanisms behind these demographic-dependent adverse events following vaccination are likely to advance our understanding of cardiology and immunology. These advances could spur the development of safer vaccines or precision vaccination practices,” they wrote.
