COVID News: What is Sudden Adult Death Syndrome? Are vaccines triggering SADS? Here's the truth

Some tweets suggesting coronavirus vaccines are triggering the Sudden Adult Death Syndrome or Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndromes, have gone viral in the western world. The tweets have been shared thousands of times and have stirred a massive debate on the safety of anti-COVID vaccines. Canada's Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation describes the condition as "a variety of cardiac arrhythmia disorders which are often genetic and can be responsible for sudden death in young, apparently healthy people". Several senior doctors weighed in on the topic. Do vaccines trigger SADS? Let's examine.

Here's how the SADS row started? 

A Twitter user wrote on the platform that vaccines are responsible for a rise in these sudden deaths. The tweet was retweeted hundreds of times and liked thousands of times. The user had written: "Why do we see a huge surge in Sudden Adult Death Syndrome? Climate change, energy bills, breakfast, shoveling snow, drinks, living under flight path, gardening, falling asleep with TV on, basically anything. Except you-know-what. Unrelated. Safe and effective". 

Another tweet that had been retweeted around 4,000 times said the user hadn't heard about an unvaccinated person getting Bell's palsy, shingles, monkeypox, myocarditis, or dropping dead from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

Another user said those who haven't been injected by mRNA or chimp virus, won't get the Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. 

What is Sudden Adult Death Syndrome?
When an otherwise healthy person dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest, he is said to be suffering from what is called the Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. For a ceased person to be diagnosed with this problem, no cause of the cardiac arrest must be found. A cardiac arrest is a condition when the heart stops pumping blood to organs which stops breathing and cuts supply of oxygen to the brain. Most cardiac arrests lead to death. 

The rhythm of the heart is controlled by electrical impulses. If there is an issue with electrical impulses, it can disturb the rhythm and cause a condition called arrhythmia. If untreated, the disease can lead to a cardiac arrest. Since a person's heart rhythm ends after death, abnormal rhythm can't be found. Hence the cause for the cardiac arrest cannot be found. 

What do the experts say about SADS?
 Immunologist Satyajit Rath from Pune's Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) says there is no evidence linking COVID vaccines to such deaths. 

Vineeta Bal, another immunologist, however, said the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are associated with myocarditis -- inflammation of the heart muscle -- in relatively young adults. He said the condition doesn't always mean death. "I have not come across reports which say current COVID-19 vaccines are a precipitating cause for sudden adult death syndrome," she added. 

Cardiologist Ashish Agarwal said rare cases of myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack have been linked to COVID-19 vaccination but not SADS. He said some people have had MI few weeks after taking the coronavirus vaccine which have been linked to the vaccines in absence of any heart-related disease. 

So most of the experts are of the view that there is no evidence of links of SADS with vaccines.

With inputs from PTI