Albany heart specialist advises 'Play the odds' when it comes to vaccinations
Jan. 4—ALBANY — When Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after a tackle during a Monday Night Football game, it set off a cacophony of conversations across the sports world and beyond.
Among those who weighed in almost immediately were "anti-vaxxers," who blamed the young player's collapse on the coronavirus vaccine.
While Hamlin remained in critical condition on Wednesday and no conclusive word has been given about the cause of his on-field cardiac arrest, the theory most mentioned is commotio cordis from a blow to the chest, which is more common in games like baseball and hockey.
"That's Latin for disturbance to the heart," Dr. James Coman of the Phoebe Physicians Group said Wednesday.
While the player's diagnosis is up to the physicians who treat him, what is known through the use of science and basic math, according to the medical profession, is that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks.
Vaccines, in general, can cause some mild symptoms of illness, which are evidence that they are doing the intended job, Coman said.
Some of the normal reactions to the novel coronavirus vaccine can include irritation at the location the shot was administered to fever, fatigue and headache to joint pain, chills and nausea/vomiting and just feeling cruddy.
"All vaccines work by stimulating your immune system," Coman said. "A lot of people get concerned, they get a little draggy. Those are actually good signs.
"If you get a vaccine and nothing happens, we may be a little concerned."
While most people may have flu-like symptoms from antiviral vaccines, in rare instances they can cause severe and even life-threatening conditions. For the various COVID vaccines used in the United States, those have included myocarditis and pericarditis as well as blood clotting and other conditions, according to the Mayo Clinic.
However, when weighed against unchecked COVID, which killed more than a million Americans, the vaccines are the better bet, Coman said.
"There is a low-grade risk to all medical procedures, even vaccines," he said. "If you look at COVID, COVID had an incredibly high risk of death. If you look at the risk of COVID without vaccines and look at the benefit of you're probably not going to die (from COVID) if you get vaccinated ... the benefit outweighs the overall risk."
Coman, a cardiac electrophysiologist, said viruses can have a permanent health impact
"Any viral infection, even the common cold, can settle into the heart and (damage) its structure, mechanics and the wiring," he said. "There really are no significant cardiac risks to vaccines. COVID infections can cause all kinds of risk with the heart."
For those who see the collapse of a football player on the field as proof that said player's cardiac arrest was caused by a shot, the physician said, the explanation of risk vs. benefit probably isn't going to sway any minds.
An easier explanation he might use would be in terms of gambling.
"I would say if you were at a Vegas casino and you're down to your last $100 and that's all you had to live on and eat, and yet you're going to make another bet; would you bet it all on the roulette wheel on a double zero or, if they would let you, play on all red and all black at the same time?" Coman said. "The chance of double-zero is so low, and it's your last $100. You want to put your money on the play where the odds are the best for you, and that's with the vaccine. So play the odds."
