According to Reuters, Israel’s Health Ministry released a statement Tuesday describing how Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine could be linked to dozens of heart inflammation cases, mainly observed in younger men.

So far, the vaccine has been administered to 5 million people in the country and could soon be expanded to teens as young as 12-15 years old.

The ministry’s findings found 275 cases of myocarditis between December 2020 and May 2021, including 148 cases within a month after the first vaccination. Of these, 27 cases after the first dose and 121 after the second. Half of the people had previous medical conditions.

According to the findings, most patients who experienced heart inflammation spent less than four days in the hospital, and 95% of the cases were classified as mild.

The study found “there is a probable link between receiving the second dose (of Pfizer) vaccine and the appearance of myocarditis among men aged 16 to 30.”

Pfizer said in a statement that it had reviewed the Israeli observations of myocarditis, noting that no link to its vaccine has been confirmed.

source reuters