Study on correlation between Covid vaccine and sudden heart attacks needs more resources: Dinesh Gundu Rao

He said, 'We have asked the committee to submit a report on the repeated incidents of deaths due to heart attacks in Hassan.'

Bengaluru: Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, on Tuesday, opined that there is a need to study the correlation between Covid vaccination and sudden heart attacks among people at the international or national level.

Though Karnataka has set up an expert committee under the leadership of Director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, Rao opined that the committee may not be able to draw out accurate conclusions since the matter has to be studied at a higher level.

“We need access to higher level data, more resources, and budget to conduct such a study. I am not sure how much our expert committee can dig into,” he said.

Organisations such as Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and World Health Organisation (WHO) were better equipped to conduct such a study, he added.

However, he added that the government has taken the matter seriously and will take any preventive steps required.

“We have asked the committee to submit a report on the repeated incidents of deaths due to heart attacks in Hassan. They will submit a report within the next ten days and based on that, we will decide if we have to investigate further,” he said.

The department will decide on the future course of action based on the expert committee report on the deaths in Hassan, he said.