The Malaysian Health Ministry announced that it has recorded 25 cases of myocarditis in patients within 21 days after receiving COVID-19 vaccines from February to September 2021. This comes after a group of doctors in Malaysia raised concern about the risk of young adults developing myocarditis and pericarditis from the experimental COVID-19 vaccines.
Out of 25 cases, 14 cases of myocarditis were linked to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, 9 cases were linked to Sinovac (CoronaVac), and 2 were AstraZeneca vaccine recipients.
Yahoo Malaysia reported:
In a statement, the ministry explained that the NPRA’s reporting format would signal health professionals to any potential side effects or concerns for the safety of the vaccine, and that the government is fully committed to its continuous monitoring of the ongoing vaccination programme.
“Recently, concerns about cases of myocarditis and pericarditis related to vaccines, especially the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine for the adolescent population received a lot of public attention.
It added that the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Health Ministry also conducted a Malaysian vaccine safety study known as Case-Based Monitoring of Adverse Events Following Covid-19 Vaccination (SAFECOVAC, NMRR-21-822-59745).
The study analysed a total of 433,674 admissions to 216 public and private hospitals from February to September 2021, and found that 25 myocarditis cases were confirmed within 21 days of receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
Of those, 14 cases of myocarditis were reported to be related to Comirnaty, nine related to CoronaVac, and two related to Oxford-AstraZeneca.
“This SAFECOVAC study found the actual rate of myocarditis incidence for every million doses given was 0.9 for comirnaty vaccine recipients, 0.5 for CoronaVac and 0.7 for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
“Among those under the age of 30, the actual rate of myocarditis was 0.87 per million doses given for BNT162b2 and 0.49 for CoronaVac. Whereas, for individuals aged 30 years and above, the actual rate of myocarditis is 1.0 per million doses for Comirnaty and 0.6 for CoronaVac,” said the ministry.
It said based on the results of SAFECOVAC, data from NRPA and real-world data systems, show that incidence of myocardial infarction after receiving Covid-19 vaccine are very rare as compared to getting it from a Covid-19 infection.
“Furthermore, most of the reported cases of myocarditis are mild, and limited to individuals and are immediately acted upon,” it said.
Last year, it was reported the Centers for Disease Control was investigating potential heart problems in young adults and adolescents following the Covid-19 vaccination.
The CDC presentation shows a surge in myocarditis/pericarditis cases in young adults after their second dose of the COVID vaccine.
Vaccine advisors to the CDC also said there are a “higher-than-expected” number of cases of heart problems in young adults following Covid vaccination.
Of course, the CDC is pushing back and said benefits from Covid-19 vaccination outweigh the risks “including risk of myocarditis or pericarditis.”
