New Zealand Says Man’s Death May Be Linked to Pfizer Vaccine

(Bloomberg) -- New Zealand health authorities said they believe a man’s death may be linked to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

The 26-year-old man died within two weeks of his first dose of Pfizer and preliminary post-mortem information suggests the probable cause was myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle wall that is a rare side effect of some Covid-19 vaccines, New Zealand’s Covid-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“With the current available information, the Board has considered that the myocarditis was probably due to vaccination in this individual,” it said. “The Board noted that Covid-19 infection can itself be a cause of myocarditis as well as other serious illnesses and it remains safer to be vaccinated than to be infected with the virus.”

It is New Zealand’s second reported death linked to the vaccine after the board said in late August that a woman’s myocarditis was probably due to vaccination. It said today that another two people had died with a potential myocarditis following vaccination. Further information was needed in the case of a 13-year-old child, while the death of a man in his 60s was unlikely related to the vaccine, it said. 

“The Board considers that the circumstances of these cases do not impact or change the known information on myocarditis, and the benefits of vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19 continue to greatly outweigh the risk of such rare side effects,” it said. “The Board has recommended actions to be taken by the Covid-19 Vaccine and Immunisation Programme to continue to highlight myocarditis as a very rare side effect of the Pfizer vaccine.”

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