Heart inflammation linked to Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines: EMA

Heart inflammation is a “very rare” side-effect of COVID vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, European Union's health regulators have said. While the continent is already reeling with skepticism regarding AstraZeneca/Oxford jabs, the agency has advised patients and doctors to be aware of symptoms of heart inflammation. According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the symptoms include feelings of breathlessness, chest pain, fluttering heartbeat amongst others. It further stated that these symptoms were more common in younger men as compared to others. 

From their analysis, the EMA concluded that there were two conditions linked to the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna shots. First was myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle while the other was pericarditis, which causes inflammation in the fluid-filled sac that the heart sits in. Both the conditions are critically lethal. 

What did the EMA find? 

According to the research, 45 cases of myocarditis and 138 cases of pericarditis were found in 177 million people inoculated with Pfizer/BioNTech shots. 19 cases of myocarditis and 19 cases of pericarditis out of 20 million doses given of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Out of the total cases, five people died. The review said they were all either elderly or had other health conditions. While an investigation on the link between the jabs and heart inflammation is ongoing, EMA has Announced that the benefits of both vaccines outweigh the risks. Therefore, advising European countries to continue their inoculation process. 

Previously in April, hesitancy against AstraZeneca rekindled after Britain’s top medicines regulator has said that out of the 18.1 million people who were inoculated using the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab in the UK, 30 have developed blood clots. In a report released on April 2, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) further confirmed that seven out of the total affected had already died as of March 24. The report comes as another blow to the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical. 

In the same month, the European Medicines Agency said that the benefits of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in preventing the COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects after several cases of blood clots were reported. They also revealed that they are assessing the very rare cases of unusual blood clots with low platelets.

Image: AP/Representative Image