Incidence of heart attacks and strokes was lower after COVID-19 vaccination, finds study of 46 million adults

Press release issued: 31 July 2024

A new study involving nearly the whole adult population of England has found that the incidence of heart attacks and strokes was lower after COVID-19 vaccination than before or without vaccination. The research, involving University of Bristol researchers, is published in Nature Communications today [31 July].

The research led by the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Edinburgh and enabled by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK analysed de-identified health records from 46 million adults in England between 8 December 2020 and 23 January 2022. Data scientists compared the incidence of cardiovascular diseases after vaccination with the incidence before or without vaccination, during the first two years of the vaccination programme.

The study showed that the incidence of arterial thromboses, such as heart attacks and strokes, was up to 10 per cent lower in the 13 to 24 weeks after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Following a second dose, the incidence was up to 27 per cent lower after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and up to 20 per cent lower after the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine.

The incidence of common venous thrombotic events – mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis – followed a similar pattern.

Read the full University of Bristol news item

Paper: 'Cohort study of cardiovascular safety of different COVID-19 vaccination doses among 46 million adults in England' by Samantha Ip, William N. Whiteley, Venexia Walker, et al. in Nature Communications [open access]