No link between Covid vaccines and sudden deaths: Centre

The Centre on Wednesday clarified that there was no evidence to link sudden deaths with Covid-19 vaccination. It further added that studies conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Centre for Disease Control (NCD) affirm that Covid-19 vaccines in India were safe.

This comes a day after Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah suggested that the “hasty approval and distribution of the Covid vaccine” could also be a reason for 20 deaths in Hassan district of the state. Twenty people have reportedly died of heart attack in the last one month in the district.

“The matter of sudden unexplained deaths has been investigated through several agencies in the country. These studies have conclusively established that there is no direct link between Covid-19 vaccination and the reports of sudden deaths in the country,” the Union Health Ministry said.

The government cited studies by the ICMR and the NCDC, which have affirmed that Covid-19 vaccines in India were safe and effective, with extremely rare instances of serious side effects. “Sudden cardiac deaths can result from a wide range of factors, including genetics, lifestyle, pre-existing conditions and post-Covid complications,” the statement said.

Director of the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Dr Manoj Murhekar, said, “We found in our studies that there is no association between vaccination and sudden deaths. Our studies found that substance use, history of sudden deaths in the family and binge drinking were the major causes of sudden deaths.”

Another scientist at the ICMR-NIE confirmed to The Tribune that their studies have found that both Covishield and Covaxin effective in bringing down the severity of Covid.

The two institutes have been working together to understand the causes behind sudden unexplained deaths, especially in young adults between the ages of 18 and 45 years.

To explore this, two complementary studies were undertaken using different research approaches — one based on past data and another involving real-time investigation.

The findings of the first study conclusively showed that Covid-19 vaccination did not increase the risk of unexplained, sudden death in young adults.

Early analysis of data from the second study indicates that heart attacks or myocardial infarction (MI), continue to be the leading cause of sudden death in this age group.

“Scientific experts have reiterated that statements linking Covid vaccination to sudden deaths are false and misleading, and are not supported by scientific consensus. Speculative claims without conclusive evidence risk undermining public confidence in vaccines, which have played a crucial role in saving millions of lives during the pandemic,” the ministry said.