Coronavirus: Hongkongers’ risk of developing heart inflammation 10 times higher with second Covid shot – but odds are very small, researchers say
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Hongkongers are 10 times more at risk of developing heart inflammation after receiving a second dose of the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine than if they have not been inoculated although the odds are very low, a new local study using big data analytics has found.
The researchers said the benefits of having the vaccine still outweighed the risks especially for vulnerable groups such the mentally ill who were more likely to be admitted to hospital if they contracted the virus and were an overlooked group for priority vaccination.
Academics from the department of pharmacology and pharmacy at the University of Hong Kong revealed their findings on Tuesday, at a press conference marking the first of a two-day international symposium on “artificial intelligence and big data for health improvement”.
“We used big data to sift through and connect seemingly unrelated events that occur in very rare incidences which could otherwise be overlooked,” researcher Dr Francisco Lai said. “Some of these occurrences are so rare that they won’t even appear in phase three clinical trials, and only come up in real world studies using big data.”
One of the examples Lai had in mind was the occurrence rate of myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscles that had been associated with the inoculation of the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which uses the mRNA technology.