ICMR to make public its study findings on sudden deaths & Covid vaccines soon

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the results of its study into heart attacks in young individuals and a possible link between heart attacks and Covid-19 vaccines and its results will be announced soon in the coming days.

Rajiv Bahl, ICMR Director General (DG), told IANS, "We are studying sudden deaths. There are four studies going on. We will get the results soon and will let everyone know as we are continuing to look at it with different angles whether there are increase in number of deaths."

He said that "we are trying to see what are potential causes" and the ICMR is awaiting a peer review of the findings before making the assessment public.

Bahl added that the people, who died are considered to be cases and those who survived are considered controls.

"There is a design which is called case control study. In case control, the deaths whether due to heart attack. In this all factors are seen, the age, morbidity, habits and how did they got Covid-infected, whether it was severe Covid, did they take Covid vaccine or not, and many other factors are seen," the DG said.

He added that first study was done on severe Covid-19 patients.

"When they were discharged and had gone home, they were followed for over a year. Out of which few died while many survived. There were 600 deaths out of 14,000 who were followed. We are now doing an analysis and we have gone and asked from their relatives to get more findings," he said.

Bahl added, "And those who didn't die, they were compared and analysed. So one study has been done. This report will come first."

He further said that second study is on sudden deaths which were reported at multiple centres across India. Similarly third study is
cardiovascular or any other thromboembolic events, who did not die but faced issues. While fourth study is in cause of death or sudden death, what it is now and what was earlier.

He added that prospectively, the deaths taking place at the AIIMS between age group of 18-45, their autopsies are being done to find out what is the cause of the death. That will be compared with the cause of death which was before Covid-19 in 2018-19.

"We will analyse if this has it changed or is it the same what it used to be. That will give us some idea why it is happening. So let us finish the studies," the ICMR DG said.

He also added that the ICMR has taken a big sample size.

"With small sample size we would not be able to say anything with confidence," he said, adding that one study has been completed and that study results are currently under review.

"And once the process is completed, we will announce the findings," Bahl added.