The study is based on the deaths of about 1,300 Oregonians between the ages of 16 and 30.

By Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle

During the pandemic, there have been reports of a link between coronavirus vaccines and cardiac deaths, especially among young people, but a new study by the Oregon Health Authority found no link between the two.

The study, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at nearly 1,300 deaths among youth and young adults ages 16 to 30 in Oregon over a 19-month period from 2021 to 2022. The study found that no one died in the first year after getting the mRNA coronavirus vaccine, which tells the body how to replicate parts of the virus as a way for the immune system to fight the virus. 100 days.

Oregon Health Authority researchers undertook the study to answer a lingering question that first surfaced in early 2021, when public health officials made vaccines available to curb the pandemic. Rarely, myocarditis (mild inflammation of the heart muscle) may occur among young people, especially men aged 16 and 17 years. However, the side effects turned into rumors that young people who received the vaccine suddenly died of heart attacks.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccinations have spread rapidly on social media, spurred in part by Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin’s heart attack during a game in 2023. .

These stories made Dr. Paul Cieslak, the agency’s medical director for infectious diseases and immunization, wonder if there was a link. Cieslak and her study co-author, Dr. Juventila Liko of OHA’s Division of Acute Infectious Disease Prevention, set out to answer that question by looking at mortality data and COVID-19 vaccinations.

They examined the death certificates of approximately 1,300 people aged 16 to 30 who died between June 2021 and December 2022. We also looked at whether the death occurred within 100 days after vaccination. This is important because side effects of vaccines usually appear within her 6 weeks.

No cases potentially related to COVID-19 vaccination were found. Forty of the deaths were vaccinated people, but only three had been vaccinated within 100 days before death.

Two of the three had underlying conditions that could cause cardiac arrest. The third death was unexplained and was the only case in which researchers could not determine the cause.

However, COVID-19 was listed as the cause of death for 30 young people in the group of about 1,300 people.

“Finding 30 deaths kind of confirms that people in this age group can die from COVID-19,” Cieslak told the Capital Chronicle. “We found no evidence that vaccination caused deaths.”

Of the 30 people who died, researchers are only aware of three who received the coronavirus vaccine. The other eight people have no record in the state’s immunization database.

Approximately 1 million people in that age group have received a COVID-19 vaccine during the same period as the study data.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 6 months of age and older to prevent serious illness and death. Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are especially at risk and should keep their vaccinations up-to-date and wait at least 4 months after their previous vaccination before getting a shot.

The latest vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Novavax were created to combat the current, ever-changing virus.

Ben Botkin covers justice, health and human services issues for the Oregon Capital Chronicle.