Are cardiac risks only present through vaccination?

The claims from this tweet stem from this article. In it, of the more than 600,000 adolescents and children who had been vaccinated, there were a grand total of 3 cases of myocarditis, nine (9) cases of pericarditis after the first dose, and three (3) cases of pericarditis after the second dose. None of the pericarditis cases required hospitalization, and some of the myocarditis patients were hospitalized but didn’t stay longer than one day.

Contrast that to the risks associated with COVID infection. There were six (6) COVID emergency room attendances and 24 COVID-19 hospitalizations. Importantly, the incidence of COVID-related hospitalizations and emergency care visits was lower in vaccinated adolescents compared to unvaccinated ones.

What this tweet fails to consider is that the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis is exceedingly low. Myocarditis and pericarditis had rates of 27 and 10 cases per million people after the first and second doses, respectively. Also, the reduction in the risk of COVID hospitalization was greater than the increase in the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis due to vaccination.

As for “myocarditis and pericarditis only occur after vaccination and not after COVID infection,” as the tweet claims, they misunderstand the full picture. The study looked at only adolescents and children, for which myocarditis and pericarditis are extremely rare occurrences in any circumstances.

In this study, they found no instances of myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 infection. However, if you look at the population as a whole, we know that COVID infection is absolutely a more significant cause of myocarditis and pericarditis.