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Is there a link between the COVID-19 vaccine and heart inflammation?

There are reports of heart inflammation related to the COVID-19 vaccine. So what does the CDC say?

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California, swimming in vaccine, is in a far different place than it was just weeks ago when simply scoring an appointment was cause for celebration. Today, Los Angeles, San Diego and other populous counties are advertising that anyone can walk in for a shot and the state is texting reminders that plenty of appointments are available.

Nurse practitioner Antoinette Barrett scans a vial of the Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine to make a label for a recipient at a Cedars-Sinai sponsored pop-up vaccine clinic at the Watts-Willowbrook Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 28, 2021.

Associated Press

The Defense Department is reviewing 14 cases of heart inflammation or myocarditis among people who were fully vaccinated in the military’s health department, according to Military.com.

  • The 14 cases came from people who received the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Similarly, Israel has found a possible link among fully vaccinated people, according to the Jerusalem Post.

But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said the agency hasn’t found a link between heart inflammation and the COVID-19 vaccine, per Reuters.

  • “We have not seen a signal and we’ve actually looked intentionally for the signal in the over 200 million doses we’ve given,” Walensky said, according to Reuters.
  • She said the CDC is working with the Department of Defense to review those aforementioned cases.

Similarly, the United Kingdom’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) didn’t see any link between the vaccine and heart inflammation, according to Reuters.

Vaccine side effects

Questions about how the COVID-19 vaccine affects people have been raised since it was first introduced. These questions reached a breaking point recently when the CDC decided to put a pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to rare reports of blood clots among women. The CDC later ended the pause, allowing the vaccine to be released again.

People who get the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were found to report more side effects than people who got other vaccines, as I wrote for the Deseret News.