Claim: Karnataka CM hints at COVID-19 vaccines as a cause for sudden heart attacks among people

Fact: False. Multiple sources including ICMR, AIIMS have stated that there is no proof linking COVID-19 vaccines to sudden heart attacks

A recent tweet from the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has linked cardiac deaths in Karnataka’s Hassan district to COVID-19 vaccines.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in a post on X that more than 20 people have died of heart attacks in Hassan district in the past month. The state government has launched an investigation and is closely monitoring the situation. The tweet specifically says: “the Covid vaccine to the public could also be a reason for these deaths.”

What’s the fact?

However, after the CM’s tweet gained traction, the Press Bureau of India issued a statement stating the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. They also referred to two major studies conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) which have found no direct link between COVID-19 vaccines and sudden deaths in young adults.

The first study mentioned in the breifing is a multicenter case-control study led by ICMR’s National Institute of Epidemiology. It examined sudden deaths among adults aged 18 to 45 across 47 hospitals in 19 Indian states and union territories. It focused on apparently healthy individuals who died suddenly between October 2021 and March 2023, and found no increased risk of unexplained sudden death associated with COVID-19 vaccination.

A second study mentioned in the briefing is by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi which is ongoing. Early data suggest that heart attacks remain the leading cause of sudden death in this age group, with no significant change in patterns compared to previous years.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon, also weighed in on this topic saying on X that India’s COVID-19 vaccines were approved under the Emergency Use Authorization framework and have undergone rigorous safety monitoring. She urged the public to rely on scientific evidence.

“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,” her tweet reads. “Heart attacks being linked to Covid vaccines after 4 years of being vaccinated does not stack up. We (in India) used conventional vaccines which has 100 years of safety data. US used mRNA vaccines which are new and need more safety data. Please follow the science“

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