Misleading: The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines lead to severe heart failure.

By: Nikita Kochhar
January 31 2022

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While the JAMA report is based on confirmed myocarditis cases, the total incidents remain small. The vaccine's benefits outweigh its risks. A handful of social media posts shared an Express article titled "Covid vaccine: The worrying side effect that may lead to severe heart failure." The article refers to a JAMA report that describes "reports of myocarditis and the reporting rates" after administering an mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Since the confirmed cases remained marginal compared to the total COVID-19 vaccinations administered, as such, it will be misleading to say that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines lead to severe heart failure. The benefits of the vaccine outweigh its potential risks. In a recently published report, the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) examined myocarditis cases, an inflammatory condition of the heart muscle, from December 2020 to August 2021. The study used data from Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Since VAERS is a self-reporting system, its data is unassessed and unverified. Raw VAERS data is often used in misleading claims about the dangers of vaccination. The cases of myocarditis studied in the JAMA report were reviewed by CDC health officials and public health experts "to verify that they met the CDC's case definition for probable or confirmed myocarditis." In the study, the researchers found that out of 192 405 448 people receiving the vaccine between December 2020 and August 2021, there were 1991 reported cases of myocarditis. Of the reported cases, 1626 were confirmed myocarditis incidents. Men made up to 82 percent of confirmed cases. The number of confirmed myocarditis cases compared to the number of vaccinations administered remains marginal. According to the confirmed myocarditis cases in the JAMA study, the risk remains rare. The majority of people who get myocarditis, whether vaccine-induced or otherwise, fully recover in a few days. CDC continues to recommend that everyone eligible, including children, should get vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the CDC, "the known risks of COVID-19 illness and its related, possibly severe complications, such as long-term health problems, hospitalization, and even death, far outweigh the potential risks of having a rare adverse reaction to vaccination." According to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, both the mRNA vaccines authorized by the U.S. FDA "are very safe and very good at preventing serious or fatal cases of COVID-19". The report adds that the potential side effects of these vaccines are "minimal" compared to the benefits. It also states that according to the information released by CDC, "Most of these myocarditis events happened in teens and young adults, and the majority of the cases were mild and cleared up on their own." CORRECTION: We previously wrote that the VAERS data had not been assessed in the JAMA report; this was incorrect. The JAMA report correctly assessed the VAERS data before analyzing it. The cases of myocarditis studied in the JAMA report were all verified by medical professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.