New Zealand’s COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board on Monday said three people of different age groups have died from heart muscle inflammation in New Zealand after receiving Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, Comirnaty.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board was informed of three reports of people who had died with a potential myocarditis in the period following vaccination.
“The Board met to review the available information related to these cases to determine whether the Pfizer (Comirnaty) COVID-19 vaccine was a factor,” the statement said.
The three cases included a 13-year-old child, a 26-year-old man, and a man in his 60s.
The board did not find a causal link between the vaccination and myocarditis in the 60-year-old man and said that more information is needed to determine the role of vaccination in the death of the 13-year-old child.
“With the current available information, the Board has considered that the myocarditis was probably due to vaccination in this individual,” the watchdog said with regard to the case of the 26-year-old man.
He developed myocarditis symptoms in the days immediately after receiving the vaccine and died within two weeks after getting the first dose, the statement said.
The board admitted that heart muscle inflammation has been a known rare side effect of the Pfizer vaccine, but stressed that COVID-19 itself can be a cause of myocarditis and the benefits of vaccination “continue to greatly outweigh” the risks.
