Israel Ministry of Health and Pfizer accused of delaying COVID-19 vaccine cardiac safety alerts

A peer-reviewed study published in the EXCLI Journal has analyzed an Israeli Ministry of Health pharmacovigilance dataset, alleging that both Pfizer and Israeli health authorities were aware of significant cardiac safety signals following the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in early 2021 but delayed informing the public.

The dataset, covering hospitalizations from March 2021 to May 2022, documented 531 hospitalizations and 67 deaths. Notably, 71.6% of hospitalizations involving patients under the age of 30 were related to myocarditis or pericarditis. The study indicates that by March 25, 2021, internal records already contained reports of 46 deaths and 157 hospitalizations, yet a delay of approximately three to four months occurred before these myocarditis signals were meaningfully communicated to clinicians and the general public.

While the information was reported to the manufacturer and international agencies like the CDC and European Medicines Agency, health authorities continued to characterize the risks as “rare” or “mild” during the initial rollout period.