75-year-old man dies of heart attack after receiving COVID-19 vaccine

A 75-year-old man from Northern Israel died of a heart attack about two hours after being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, the Health Ministry confirmed.

The man had pre-existing conditions and had suffered from heart attacks in the past, the ministry said. Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy has launched an investigation into the incident.

“We share in the grief of the family,” Levy said in a statement.

The man was inoculated at around 8:30 a.m. at a Clalit clinic. He stayed at the facility, as is customary, for a short period of time to ensure he had no side effects. When he felt well, the clinic released him.

Levy noted that the initial findings do not show a link between the man’s death and his vaccination.

Recall, when Pfizer presented its safety data to the US Food and Drug Administration back in early December, it was found that two trial participants had died after receiving the vaccine. One of the deceased was immunocompromised, meaning the person’s immune defenses were low. 

At the time, Israel’s Midaat Association responded to the report on the deaths, explaining that when vaccines are administered to at-risk populations “there may be unfortunate cases. One should not infer from this about the safety of the vaccine, but welcome the transparency required from the pharma companies in the drug approval process.”

The association noted that in large trials of tens of thousands of people, death can occur without any connection to the trial, but that companies such as Pfizer are required to report those deaths.

“According to the published data, six of the participants in the experiment died, two of whom received the vaccine and four of the control group,” said Dr. Uri Lerner, the scientific director for Midaat. “After an in-depth examination, no connection was found between the experiment and the cause of death.”

Conspiracy theories surrounding side effects and claimed dangers of the newly released coronavirus vaccines have spread rapidly throughout social media.

The main side effects reported in the trials of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were pain, swelling and redness at the site of injection and chills, tiredness and headache in general, but these effects usually only lasted a few days at most.

Any longer-term side effects are still unknown, as the vaccine is still too new to know. However, the majority of health officials have said they believe the vaccine will cause no long-term harm. In Israel, more than 80% of medical personnel are expected to be inoculated. 

As of Monday morning, Israel has vaccinated 380,000 Israelis with the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. According to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, 99,000 people were vaccinated on Sunday alone.

Currently, Israel is vaccinating medical personnel, people over the age of 60 and those with chronic illnesses, and hopes to begin vaccinating teachers and school staff later this week.

The IDF vaccination campaign kicked off Monday, as well. 

Israel is hoping to vaccinate as many as 150,000 people per day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night. If successful, 2.5 million Israelis would have been jabbed within a month and a half.