During the first two years of the pandemic, from March 2020 to March 2022, there were approximately 90,000 more deaths in the United States attributed to cardiovascular disease than were expected for that span of time.

The majority of these occurred in people 65 and older — the age group with the highest risk for cardiovascular complications. But heart-related deaths also increased dramatically in younger adults. In fact, a study found that the sharpest rise in deaths from heart attack during that period occurred in 25- to 44-year-olds.

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The potential for cardiovascular complications doesn’t go away after someone has recovered from Covid. A large 2022 study tracking medical records of 691,455 patients in the United States found that people had a significantly higher risk of developing virtually all heart-related diseases in the year after a Covid infection. According to the research, people were 1.5 times more likely to have a stroke, nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack, and had between 1.6 and 2.4 times the risk of developing different types of arrhythmias.

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Research has shown that people who are vaccinated are roughly 40 to 60 percent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke following a Covid infection than those who are unvaccinated. This may be because vaccinated people are less likely to develop severe Covid, which in turn lowers the risk of many of these heart-related issues. Or the vaccine may help protect the cardiovascular system itself — by reducing the inflammatory effects of Covid, for example.