A study conducted by Lancet has deduced that the chances of developing heart inflammation after getting inoculated for COVID-19 are significantly low. According to the study, there is a lower risk of developing myopericarditis, a condition that causes inflammation of heart muscles, after COVID-19 vaccination.

Published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, the study suggests that unlike other non-COVID-19 vaccines, a vaccine for the coronavirus rarely causes myopericarditis.

The team of researchers examined and searched through over 400 million vaccination doses registered in international databases, in order to compare the risk of developing heart inflammation post vaccination against COVID-19 and other diseases like smallpox or influenza.

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“Our research suggests that the overall risk of myopericarditis appears to be no different for this newly approved group of vaccines against COVID- 19, compared to vaccines against other diseases,” said  Kollengode Ramanathan, the corresponding author of the study.

“The risk of such rare events should be balanced against the risk of myopericarditis from infection and these findings should bolster public confidence in the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations,” Ramanathan added.

In some cases, the medical condition of myopericarditis can lead to severe cardiovascular damage that is life-threatening. While it is mostly caused by viruses, it can occur after getting inoculated in rare circumstances. 

Despite the findings of the study, there have been multiple reports of people developing myopericarditis after the COVID-19 vaccination, especially adolescents and young adults.

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“The occurrence of myopericarditis following non-COVID-19 vaccination could suggest that myopericarditis is a side effect of the inflammatory processes induced by any vaccination and is not unique to the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins in COVID-19 vaccines or infection,” said Jyoti Somani, the co-author of the study.

“This also highlights that the risks of such infrequent adverse events should be offset by the benefits of vaccination, which include a lower risk of infection, hospitalisation, severe disease, and death from COVID-19,” Somani concluded.