COVID-19 Vaccination Not Tied to Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People

Because COVID-19 vaccinations have been associated with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) in teens and young adults, concerns have been raised about possible vaccine-related cardiac fatalities in this age group.

“Although the rate [of myocarditis] was higher during the pandemic year of 2021, myocarditis remained an infrequent cause of death among persons in this age group [between 15 and 34 years old],” wrote study authors Juventila Liko, MD, and Paul Cieslak, MD, with the Oregon Health Authority.

Misinformation from anti-vaccination groups — including unfounded speculation on social media that the shots contributed to the collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin last year — has only served to fuel doubts surrounding vaccination.

“There are a lot of anti-vaxxers out there who have promoted the concept that the vaccine will cause myocarditis and kill young men,” says Robert A. Kloner MD, director of of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena, California, who was not involved in the research.

No Evidence Connecting the COVID-19 Vaccine to Death

In this analysis, scientists reviewed death certificates from more than 1,200 previously healthy young people, aged 16 to 30 years old, who died from COVID-19, heart-related issues, or unknown causes between June 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. A total of 925 (72 percent) were male and 367 (28 percent) were female.

For 30 of these individuals, COVID-19 was listed as the cause of death.

For 101 others, a cardiac cause of death could not be excluded. Immunization records were available for 88 people in this group. Of 40 deaths that occurred among people who had received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, three occurred within 100 days after getting the shot.

Two of these deaths were attributed to chronic underlying conditions, and for one death, the cause was undetermined. None of the deaths were attributed to vaccination.

“These data do not support an association between receipt of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and sudden cardiac death among previously healthy young persons,” concluded the study authors. “Detection of a small difference in mortality rate from myocarditis would require a larger sample size.”

Vaccination Protection Outweigh Risks

For Edward Jones-Lopez, MD, an infectious disease specialist with Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, the results provide further confirmation of the vaccine’s safety, and should encourage all people 6 months and older to get the shot to prevent COVID-19 complications, including death.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that the benefits of the vaccination outweigh the risks,” says Dr. Jones-Lopez, who was not involved in the research. “This study confirms that mRNA COVID vaccines are not leading to any serious cardiac events or deaths, and they continue to be among the safest vaccines that have ever been produced.”

“The vaccine does not necessarily prevent someone from getting infected, but it lessens the severity of the disease and reduces hospitalizations and death,” says Kloner.