The United Kingdom’s official statistician has released data which indicates young women experienced three and a half times more risk of dying from heart-related issues in the three months following taking a single dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
A dataset released this week from Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), which analysed the hospitalisation, vaccination status, and death records of those who took coronavirus vaccines within the 12 to 29-year-old age group found that there was evidence to support the idea that there was higher risk among women for heart attacks or other heart-related issues after taking just one dose of a non-mRNA vaccine, including the jab produced by AstraZeneca.
The report also stated that there was no discernible increased risk of death in the overall population of 12 to 29 year-olds in England in the three months following their first injection. The statistician noted that the number of people who died was relatively low compared to the number of vaccines administered, with 59 vaccine-related deaths recorded out of the 144.7 million doses given.
In all since Coronavirus became known, the government records 187,546 deaths “with COVID-19 on the death certificate”.
The heart-related deaths, which included cardiac arrest, heart disease, and myocarditis, were recorded as being 3.5 times higher among young women in the first 12 weeks after receiving their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. However, the statistician said younger men were not at the same risk of heart deaths for either the non-mRNA, which mainly came in the form of AstraZeneca in Britain or the novel mRNA jabs produced by Pfizer and Moderna.
The ONS also studied the increased risk of death for those who tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus and discovered that it raised the risk for cardiac and other causes of death.
Explaining the possible reason for higher fatality among young women, the ONS document suggested that non-mRNA vaccines were mainly given to young people who were already clinically vulnerable, which may explain the data.
The ONS said:
Following safety concerns, the ChAdOx1 Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine was withdrawn for people aged under 30 on 7 April 2021. At that time vaccination for young people was only for those who were prioritised, therefore the young people who received a non mRNA vaccine were more likely to be clinically vulnerable and risks for this group may differ from the population in general.
Commenting on the release, a senior statistician at the ONS, Vahé Nafilyan said: “We find no evidence that the risk of cardiac or all cause death is increased in the weeks following vaccination with mRNA vaccines.
“However, receiving a first dose of a non-mRNA vaccine was associated with an increased risk of cardiac death in young women.
“Vaccination with the main non-mRNA vaccine used in the UK was stopped for young people following safety concerns in April 2021, and most of the young people who received it would have been prioritised due to clinical vulnerability or being healthcare workers. Therefore, these results cannot be generalised to the population as a whole.
“Whilst vaccination carries some risks, these need to be assessed in light of its benefits. Our analysis shows that the risk of death is greatly increased following a positive test for Covid-19 even in young people and many studies show that vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalisation or death following Covid-19 infection.
“We will continue to monitor data on vaccinations as further doses are rolled out and produce analyses such as this study that contribute to the body of knowledge on risks and benefits of vaccination.”
Continuing in the science journal Nature, the ONS authors again said that part of the explanation for young women being at a higher risk from the vaccine could be that they were already people who had health problems and therefore were more likely to desire to seek protection from the jab. It is also worth noting that the study did not claim that any of the deaths were directly caused by the vaccine, as other factors, including later contracting the Chinese virus could have been at play.
Prof Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, said: “These are interesting data which generate as many questions as answers. The findings are somewhat unexpected, as concerns about rare cardiac side-effects – specifically myocarditis and pericarditis – have hitherto been particularly associated with mRNA vaccine second doses in males especially when the dose interval was short, whereas the signal reported here is primarily in non-mRNA first doses in females.”
The professor went on to say that more information was needed about the specific cardiac deaths to understand the data and to “guide future policy and vaccine design”.
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