The Pfizer Vaccine Triples the Risk of Myocarditis

The Pfizer vaccine triples the likelihood of developing various forms of inflammation of the heart tissue, but these side effects are extremely rare. This was established by an international team of scientists, and their findings were published in an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"Hong Kong residents who received one or two doses of Pfizer vaccine were about three times more likely to suffer from various forms of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart tissue, than people in the control group. This is not typical of volunteers who received the CoronaVac vaccine," the researchers wrote.

In the spring of this year, Israeli doctors discovered that Pfizer and Moderna in extremely rare cases cause myocarditis, an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle, the complications of which can lead to heart failure or sudden cardiac arrest. Researchers later found that myocarditis most often develops after vaccination in children and adolescents.

A group of British and Chinese doctors, led by Ian Vaughn, a professor at University College London (UK), asked how often the Pfizer vaccine causes not only myocarditis but also other inflammatory diseases of all types of heart tissue.

To answer this question, the researchers analyzed the medical records of more than 160 patients at clinics in Hong Kong who were admitted to the hospital with similar forms of heart dysfunction. Among them are both Pfizer vaccine recipients and Chinese residents who received the CoronaVac vaccine.

Using these data, the researchers calculated the typical incidence of heart inflammation among patients who received both vaccines, as well as among other Hong Kong residents of similar age and sex who had carditis for...