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Are vaccines riskier than disease for healthy people?

The Claim:

A U.S. Senator tweeted claims that COVID vaccines carry a 28 times higher risk for myocarditis than COVID itself does and that no young, healthy people have died from COVID.

The Facts:

COVID kills, even young, healthy people. And death isn’t even the only severe outcome of COVID. Long COVID, can impact between 4-25% of children and young adults as well.

Second, while one study did find that rates of myocarditis was higher in males under 40 after vaccination than after COVID infection, the authors of the paper pointed out that COVID-induced myocarditis had a much higher risk of heart failure or death than vaccine-induced myocarditis did.

CDC data shows that myocarditis is more common after infection than vaccination for teen and young adult males.

Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved since this was originally posted. Browse the latest information posted in Just the Facts Topics.

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