A study of nearly 4.1 million people aged 16 to 25 found that those who caught COVID-19 without being vaccinated had the highest recorded rates of myocarditis, pericarditis, and death of any group examined. Those who were vaccinated and had no recorded infection had the lowest rates of all three. The findings were published in the journal Vaccine by a team led by researchers at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York.
For families weighing a COVID-19 vaccine decision this fall, the practical point is that the heart risk question has two sides. Myocarditis after mRNA vaccination is real and documented. Myocarditis after infection is also real and documented. Most public discussion has weighed one without the other, and this analysis put both in the same population and the same medical record system.
