MSNBC Anchor Hospitalized With Severe Myocarditis, Pericarditis

Yasmin Vossoughian is seen in a file photo Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

An MSNBC anchor revealed in a recent segment that she was hospitalized with heart inflammation in December, leading her to miss work for about a month.

Yasmin Vossoughian said that the health scare started on Dec. 20 when she started to experience chest pains that “waxed and waned over a period of 10 days.” Those pains “continued to get worse” over the coming days, she added.

The anchor, who hosts a weekend program on the left-wing network, said she went to urgent care on Dec. 30 and was told she had acid reflux. A day later, she woke up with severe chest pains and pain in her left shoulder, leading her to believe she was suffering from a heart attack.

Vossoiughian, 44, said she went to the emergency room. Doctors diagnosed her with pericarditis, or inflammation of the lining of the heart. They claimed it was caused by “a literal common cold,” she said.

She added that she doesn’t smoke, she runs several miles per week, does yoga, doesn’t eat meat, and drinks occasionally. “I’m a pretty healthy person,” she said.

After she was admitted to the hospital, she spent several days there before she was released on Jan. 4, Vossoiughian said.

“But that was not the end ... three days later, I was readmitted when I felt a flutter in my heart like a butterfly,” she said. Doctors then informed her that she developed myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and she spent another five days in the hospital.

Vossoiughian then said that it was “just the cold that was doing ... all the inflammation in and around my heart.”

Speculation

With Vossoiughian’s confirmation that she suffered pericarditis and myocarditis, there was widespread speculation on social media that it may have been caused by a COVID-19 vaccine or booster. The MSNBC host did not make mention of COVID-19 or vaccines during her segment, and she said her doctors blamed it on the common cold virus.

Both pericarditis and myocarditis are considered side effects of mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, according to the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But, according to Johns Hopkins University, while rare, myocarditis can be caused “by an infection in the body,” including the common cold, influenza, and COVID-19. Bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections can also lead to myocardial inflammation.

The Myocarditis Foundation, meanwhile, says that “viral infections are the leading cause of myocarditis,” but it notes that “a wide range of infections, diseases, and substances may cause this condition.”

And the UK National Health Service says that “pericarditis often follows a viral infection, such as a sore throat or cold.”

In 2021, Vossoiughian wrote on social media that she was fully vaccinated for COVID-19. “We are both vaccinated...that was confirmed before this pic!” she said in April of that year. Comcast’s NBCUniversal also mandated that its employees, including those working at MSNBC, get the vaccine before returning to the office in early 2022.

Later in the segment, the MSNBC host brought on her physician, Dr. Greg Katz, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Hospital, for an interview. Vossoiughian asked him about anecdotal claims that more and more people are now suffering from pericarditis and myocarditis.

“Could be the season is more virus heavy, maybe our immune systems are different because we’ve been masking and social distancing,” Katz claimed, adding that “nobody knows why this is.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Vossoughian for comment.