TY - JOUR
T1 - Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave
AU - Sun, Christopher L.F.
AU - Jaffe, Eli
AU - Levi, Retsef
N1 - Funding Information:
Author CS is partially funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship.
Funding Information:
Author CS has been partially funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship for unrelated work within the last three years. Author RL has been received grants and contracts (all made to his primary institution: MIT) from Walmart Foundation, World Wildlife Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, Food and Drug Administration, Target Inc., as well as consulting fees from Israel Defense Forces and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and honoraria for a lecture at Pepsico for unrelated work within the last three years.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Cardiovascular adverse conditions are caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections and reported as side-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. Enriching current vaccine safety surveillance systems with additional data sources may improve the understanding of COVID-19 vaccine safety. Using a unique dataset from Israel National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from 2019 to 2021, the study aims to evaluate the association between the volume of cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome EMS calls in the 16–39-year-old population with potential factors including COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. An increase of over 25% was detected in both call types during January–May 2021, compared with the years 2019–2020. Using Negative Binomial regression models, the weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group but were not with COVID-19 infection rates. While not establishing causal relationships, the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals. Surveillance of potential vaccine side-effects and COVID-19 outcomes should incorporate EMS and other health data to identify public health trends (e.g., increased in EMS calls), and promptly investigate potential underlying causes.
AB - Cardiovascular adverse conditions are caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections and reported as side-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. Enriching current vaccine safety surveillance systems with additional data sources may improve the understanding of COVID-19 vaccine safety. Using a unique dataset from Israel National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) from 2019 to 2021, the study aims to evaluate the association between the volume of cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome EMS calls in the 16–39-year-old population with potential factors including COVID-19 infection and vaccination rates. An increase of over 25% was detected in both call types during January–May 2021, compared with the years 2019–2020. Using Negative Binomial regression models, the weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group but were not with COVID-19 infection rates. While not establishing causal relationships, the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals. Surveillance of potential vaccine side-effects and COVID-19 outcomes should incorporate EMS and other health data to identify public health trends (e.g., increased in EMS calls), and promptly investigate potential underlying causes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128967414&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-10928-z
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-10928-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 35484304
AN - SCOPUS:85128967414
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 12
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 6978
ER -
