HEART INFLAMMATION, VACCINES, AND COVID

Written by Kevin McCurry, MD in Current Issues,Family Health,Infections Last Updated September 22, 2022

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Table of contents

Is COVID worse for the heart than Vaccines?

Which is worse, COVID Vaccines or COVID-19 infection? The quick answer is: the infection is worse. But I hope to show you why so you can make a better decision for yourself. Your risk of severe COVID disease depends on your age and medical conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart disease.

We are two years into the pandemic, omicron seems to be waning, and we’re all hoping to get back to everyday living again. I suspect that COVID will be with us over the long term and never completely disappear. But I think we can learn to live with that. Learning to live with it includes taking steps to protect yourself.

How Do You Best Protect Yourself?

It’s pretty much the same way you protect yourself before you get into a car. You plan your route, you know where you’re going, you check side mirrors, put on your seat belt, and lastly, you navigate carefully and safely. It’s the same procedure for protecting yourself from Covid 19. Know where you’re going; is it a high-risk or low-risk environment. Check your side mirrors by being aware of those around you who might have symptoms of illness. Put on your seat belt, which can be like wearing a mask if you feel that would be best for you. Strongly consider vaccination if you haven’t already had one. It’s the same procedure for protecting yourself from Covid 19.

Are Covid Vaccinations Risky?

In a word, generally no. Compared to COVID, getting the disease can be much worse than the vaccination. As we get further into our knowledge of COVID, it seems clear that even mild cases increase your risk of internal damage. In hospitalized people with COVID, everyone has organ damage to varying degrees. If you are hospitalized with the infection, you very likely have heart inflammation, which is a hallmark of COVID. Everyone in the ICU has heart inflammation. Whether or not it is life-threatening depends on the severity of it. The vaccinations are not without risk. However, the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis after Covid vaccination is relatively low.

What Do the Stats Show?

There were between two and ten additional cases of heart inflammation per 100,000 vaccine doses, compared to an additional 40 per 100,000 cases after COVID-19 disease. Other cases mean more cases than typically occurred pre- COVID. The infection gives you between four and 20 times the risk of heart inflammation compared to the shots. That’s a 400-2,000% increase from the disease compared to the vaccines. See this citation.

What Is Vaccine-Induced Heart Inflammation Like?

Good question. It usually occurs in young males between 12 and 30, most often after the second dose. Treatment was often just resting at home and sometimes in the hospital, including the ICU. Typically the heart inflammation was uneventful, and there have been no deaths so far. Symptoms include chest pain and shortness of breath. The overall rate of myocarditis after vaccination seems to be about 1.7 cases per 100,000 doses. Don’t forget over 8 billion doses have been given globally.

Which Vaccine Has More Cases of Heart Inflammation?

Pfizer had 1 case in 71,000 doses, and Moderna had 1 case in 24,000 doses, about four times more. Nearly all patients were mild. According to the National Weather Service, you have a one in 15,000 chance over your entire lifetime of being struck by lightning.

Heart Inflammation Update April 12, 2022

The Lancet just came out with a review of vaccines and heart inflammation or myocardidtis/pericicarditis from 1947 to 2021. Of over 400 million doses, COVID vaccines had a case rate of 18 per 1 million shots, for all non-COVID shots it was 56 per 1 millions shots. Smallpox vaccines had the highest rate at 56 per 1 million shots, and the COVID vaccine rate was similar to the typical flu shot. The greatest risk from mRNA COVID vaccines remains in males less than 30 years of age and after the second shot.

So How Do I Decide?

Like anything in medicine, it is weighing risk versus benefit. The risk of heart inflammation is low; your risk factors are much higher if you have chronic medical disease. But if you’re young and healthy, your risk of COVID is low, but that’s not always the case. Even healthy people end up in the ICU, and unfortunately, those people sometimes die. Pregnant women seem to be at much greater risk than most. If you still have questions about your risk, talk to your doctor about what is best for you.

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Kevin McCurry, MD

I’ve spent the last 30 + years helping my own patients navigate complex medical issues. Now, I hope to help you better understand your medical problems.

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