'Covid vaccine takers have lower risk...': Cardiologist cites study to counter talk of heart attack spike post-jab

A senior cardiologist from Delhi's GB Pant Hospital has said that Covid-19 vaccines not only do not cause heart attacks, but actually lower the risk of cardiac events and all-cause mortality. His comments come amid public concern over a recent spike in heart attack deaths in Karnataka and remarks by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah questioning the safety of vaccines approved during the pandemic.

Dr Mohit Gupta, Professor of Cardiology at GB Pant Hospital, cited findings from a hospital-led study of 1,600 heart attack patients, comparing those who were vaccinated against Covid-19 and those who were not.

"In our own study on 1,600 patients with heart attacks who had received the COVID vaccine and those who had not received it, we found that those who have received the COVID vaccine not only have lower chances of having a heart attack, all-cause mortality and sudden deaths, but also, following them for 30 days and 6 months, the chances of death of those people are significantly reduced,” Dr Gupta said while speaking to news agency ANI. 

"The COVID-19 vaccine is harmless and also plays a protective role. This study is not only ours; ICMR has also validated this. In our study, we took both the COVID vaccines and similar results were shown for both the Covaxin and Covishield,” he added.

This comes amid a controversy sparked by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who suggested that "hasty approval and distribution" of Covid vaccines might be responsible for a spate of heart attack deaths in Hassan district. “I urge people experiencing chest pain or difficulty in breathing to visit the nearest health centre,” the CM said in a social media post, noting that over 20 deaths had occurred in Hassan in the past month.

Biocon founder and Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw rejected the suggestion. She said 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."

The Karnataka government has formed a committee led by Dr C N Ravindranath, Director of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, to examine the cause of the deaths. A report is expected within 10 days. A district-level committee has also been tasked with verifying each reported case, working in coordination with Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences.

According to the Karnataka Health Department, among the reported cases, four individuals were aged 20 years or below, one was between 21 and 29, five were aged 30–40, seven were between 41 and 59, and one was above 60 years.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry has reiterated that extensive investigations by ICMR, AIIMS, and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have found no evidence linking Covid-19 vaccines to sudden deaths. Two complementary studies—one retrospective and one prospective—have been launched to probe the issue.

The first, conducted by ICMR’s National Institute of Epidemiology, looked at cases of sudden unexplained deaths in apparently healthy individuals between October 2021 and March 2023 and concluded there was no increased risk due to vaccination. 

The second, ongoing study titled “Establishing the cause in sudden unexplained deaths in young”, is being conducted at AIIMS Delhi with ICMR support. 
Preliminary findings indicate heart attacks, or myocardial infarction, remain the leading cause of such deaths.