Posts Exaggerate Significance of Swiss Study on Heart Risk and COVID-19 Vaccination
SciCheck Digest
A Swiss study found that after a COVID-19 booster, less than 3% of people briefly had a slightly elevated blood level of a protein that can be a marker of heart injury. No one in the study had any serious heart damage, and other experts say the findings are unlikely to be clinically significant. Viral posts, however, are spinning the results to falsely claim that the study shows the vaccine’s risks are “off the scale.”
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Multiple studies have shown that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in protecting against severe disease and death. While myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and its surrounding tissue, have been identified as rare serious side effects of the vaccines, the benefits of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination still outweigh the risks across all age groups.
Myocarditis is a potentially serious condition that can be triggered by a viral infection, including an infection with the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2. As we’ve , that even though both the vaccine and COVID-19 can cause myocarditis, the overall risks associated with COVID-19 are higher. Vaccine-associated myocarditis is rare, occurring most frequently
