A higher than expected number of heart inflammation cases have occurred in people who received Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, researchers reported in a new study.
Sixty-one cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or both following a Novavax vaccination were reported in the World Health Organization’s vaccine safety database through Aug. 23, 2022, Spanish researchers found.
Using pre-pandemic rates of heart inflammation in the population, the researchers calculated that the number of post-vaccination cases was higher than expected.
Reporting odds ratio values of higher than one indicate a higher-than-expected rate. For myocarditis following Novavax vaccination, the ratio was 5.2. For pericarditis, it was 24.75. For myopericarditis, or both conditions at once, it was 14.4….