COVID Vaccine & Heart Attack? Experts Slam Karnataka CM’s Claim | No Scientific Link Says ICMR

Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Thursday criticized the comments made by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, which attributed the causative factor of a series of death cases due to heart attacks in the state of Hassan in the state of Karnataka, citing links to COVID-19 vaccines.

Siddaramaiah has even proposed that the wave of deaths in Hassan district due to heart attack might be a result of the vaccination drive. He had also said that the vaccines were even approved hastily.

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In a social media post, Shaw said "covid-19 vaccines developed in India were approved under the Emergency Use Authorisation framework, following rigorous protocols aligned with global standards for safety and efficacy. To suggest that these vaccines were 'hastily' approved is factually incorrect and contributes to public misinformation."

"These vaccines have saved millions of lives and, like all vaccines, may cause side effects in a very small number of individuals. It is important to acknowledge the science and data-driven processes behind their development, rather than engage in retrospective blame," Shaw, Executive Chairperson of the pharma company, said.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister had indicated that there had been more than 20 deaths due to heart attack in the Hassan district in the previous month alone and indeed the state government was serious about the matter.

He declared the creation of a team of experts to look into the deaths headed by Dr Ravindranath, the director of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research. The committee has been mandated to give its report in ten days.

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The CM informed that a similar directive was issued in February to examine the case of sudden deaths among young people in the state and on whether the covid-19 vaccines had any adverse impacts.

"It cannot be denied that the hasty approval and distribution of the covid vaccine to the public could also be a reason for these deaths, as several studies worldwide have recently indicated that covid vaccines could be a cause for the increasing number of heart attacks," Siddaramaiah had said.

The statement of the CM was debunked by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday where it said that there are no such correlations of COVID-19 vaccines and sudden fatalities through extensive research carried out by ICMR and AIIMS.

The country has not reported any death directly related to the vaccine and the cross-regulation study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) has reaffirmed this belief stating that the covid-19 vaccines in India are safe and effective, it said.

The ministry had said in a statement that sudden cardiac deaths are caused due to a slew of factors including genetics, lifestyle, pre-existing conditions and post-covid complications.

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