Vaccines
VaccinesOlivier Fitoussi/Flash90

Adults have a far higher risk of being diagnosed with heart, skin, and psychiatric conditions for at least the first three months after receiving a COVID vaccine shot, according to a peer-reviewed study of almost 300,000 people in California that was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.

Researchers studied new diagnoses given to people before and after they were vaccinated to see whether the shots altered the likelihood of new health problems.

They found that people were around 21 percent more likely to receive a new diagnosis in the three months following a shot compared to the three months prior. Given the number of people who have received the injections, potentially tens of millions of people across the world are now dealing with health issues that they most likely would not have experienced had they remained unvaccinated.

The health issues identified as most likely to crop up following COVID vaccination included hypertension (25 percent more likely to be diagnosed), depression, eczema, diabetes, and cellulitis (between 10 and 20 percent more likely).

Myocarditis diagnoses were found to be associated with the highest additional risk. They were about 2.6 times as likely overall, with an even higher risk in men.

Meanwhile, researchers in Hong Kong found an even sharper increase in autoimmune “flares” following COVID vaccination, describing new episodes of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other serious autoimmune conditions. Their paper was published on February 17 in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology.