Saudi Arabia Retrospect Cohort Analysis Finds No Real Risk of Myopericarditis Post COVID-19 Jab, Possible Bias and Generalizability Issues

Salah H Elsafi, Ph.D., Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Prince Sultan Military College, of Health Sciences, Dhahran a city of 143,936 and a major administrative center for the Saudi oil industry, tapped into and analyzed data from the hospital information system at two primary cardiac centers in the region. The goal: while evidence linking myopericarditis and COVID-19 vaccination has primarily derived from case series, Elasfi and colleagues note that epidemiological evidence evidencing an increased relative risk for myopericarditis post-COVID-19 is lacking. Enter this study, and the Saudi investigators&rsquo; aim of assessing in the Eastern Region confirmed COVID-19 vaccine-related cases of myopericarditis presenting to major cardiac centers in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia, before and after the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine. The authors find incidence of myopericarditis cases to be quite rare in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. TrialSite raises some concerns about the limitations and the potential for bias. Are these findings generalizable to other regions of Saudi Arabia, the rest of the Middle East or beyond?
The Study