Cohort study of cardiovascular safety of different COVID-19 vaccination doses among 46 million English adults

Abstract

Using longitudinal health records from 45.7 million adults in England followed for a year, our study compared the incidence of thrombotic and cardiovascular complications after first, second and booster doses of brands and combinations of COVID-19 vaccines used during the first two years of the UK vaccination program with the incidence before or without the corresponding vaccination. The incidence of common arterial thrombotic events (mainly acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke) was generally lower after each vaccine dose, brand and combination. Similarly, the incidence of common venous thrombotic events, (mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis) was lower after vaccination. There was a higher incidence of previously reported rare harms after vaccination: vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia after first ChAdOx1 vaccination, and myocarditis and pericarditis after first, second and transiently after booster mRNA vaccination (BNT-162b2 and mRNA-1273) These findings support the wide uptake of future COVID-19 vaccination programs.