PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A new study from the Oregon Health Authority found COVID-19 vaccinations are not connected to cardiac-related deaths.
Researchers examined nearly 1,300 deaths among Oregon adolescents and young adults between 16 and 30-years-old over a 19-month period from 2021 to 2022.
The study found none of the deaths that occurred within 100 days after receiving an mRNA COVID vaccine dose were attributed to vaccination.
The study’s co-authors, Dr. Paul Cieslak, and Dr. Juventila Liko – of OHA’s Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention Section – said suggestions of a link between the vaccine and sudden cardiac death among healthy teens and young adults are not supported by their findings.
“According to information recorded on death certificates, among 1,292 deaths of persons 16 to 30 years of age from June 2021 to December 2022, none was found to have been caused by COVID-19 vaccination,” said Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations.
According to the study, of 40 deaths that occurred among people who received an mRNA vaccine, three deaths occurred within 100 days after vaccination. Researchers noted, two of the deaths were attributed to chronic underlying conditions and one was undetermined.
OHA said no death certificate attributed a death to the vaccination.
According to Cieslak, there were 30 deaths among this age group that were caused by COVID. Among those 30, Oregon’s ALERT Immunization Information System had records for 22. Of the 22 decedents, three received a COVID vaccine.
“Studies have shown significant reductions in COVID-19-related mortality among vaccinated persons; during the first 2 years of COVID-19 vaccine availability in the United States, vaccination prevented an estimated 18.5 million hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths,” the researchers wrote in their study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The researchers also acknowledge two limitations in their findings. OHA said the researchers could not exclude the possibility of vaccine-associated cardiac deaths more than 100 days after someone received a COVID vaccines.
Additionally, even though nearly one million adolescents and young adults received a COVID vaccine during the period of the study, researchers could not exclude “a rarer event” among vaccines in the group.
“Nevertheless,” Cieslak said, “it is clear that the risk, if any, of cardiac death linked to COVID-19 vaccination is very low, while the risk of dying from COVID-19 is real. We continue to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all persons 6 months of age and older to prevent COVID-19 and complications, including death.”
