Commentary
As reported in a handful of media outlets, Pfizer and Moderna’s new trials closely investigating vaccine myocarditis are underway. As part of its vaccine approval, the FDA has mandated (pdf) both companies to conduct clinical trials tracking vaccine myocarditis months and years beyond diagnosis.As NBC reports, “Moderna has already launched two trials, the most recent in September. Pfizer confirmed that at least one of its trials, which will include up to 500 teens and young adults under age 21, is slated to begin in the next couple of months.”
As has been long-established, mRNA vaccines induce myocarditis at alarmingly high rates in young men. A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology compares rates of myocarditis between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine. It finds a vaccine myocarditis rate of 1 in 3,636 in men ages 18 to 29 following a second dose of the Moderna vaccine. For Pfizer, the authors report a rate of 1 in 20,000 in the same age group—roughly equal to the rate for Moderna in men ages 30 to 39.
While the clinical myocarditis rate has been quantified in several high-quality studies, many serious concerns remain unaddressed. One major concern is subclinical myocarditis—the rate of serious myocardial symptoms post-vaccination that don’t formally qualify as myocarditis. The FDA has required (pdf) Pfizer and Moderna to conduct a “substudy to prospectively assess the incidence of subclinical myocarditis following administration of the second dose of [vaccine] in a subset of participants 5 through 15 years of age.”
Currently, the only data on subclinical myocarditis following mRNA vaccination comes from a small Thai study. Despite only studying 301 participants, the analysis found an alarming signal of heart damage in 13 to 18-year-olds: “Seven participants (2.33%) exhibited at least one elevated cardiac biomarker or positive lab assessments. Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis.”
More troublingly, 3 out of 301 children in the study developed myocarditis or suspected pericarditis. Meanwhile, another four kids had elevated cardiac markers and were labeled as subclinical myocarditis. To find such high numbers of vaccine injuries in such a small study group is deeply concerning. As Philadelphia cardiologist Dr. Anish Koka noted in his analysis, “We should be clear that no one currently knows the long-term significance of the clinical or subclinical myocarditis that is being diagnosed here..”
Another major concern surrounding mRNA vaccination is the long-term outcomes of vaccine myocarditis. Anecdotally, we know vaccine myocarditis typically results in a few days of hospitalization followed by four to six months of highly restricted physical activity. Even then, it isn’t clear if a “full recovery” is made. In the case of 14-year-old Aidan Jo, whose mother I recently interviewed, more than a year after his initial diagnosis, he still struggles with exercise.
“He used to be able to run around and play for hours ... now it’s like 20 to 30 minutes and he gets exhausted,” his mother told me.
A CDC analysis (pdf) earlier this year showed one-third of vaccine myocarditis patients were not fully recovered at the three-month follow-up. As Koka noted, the survey contained troubling cardiac imaging findings: “53% had an abnormal cardiac MRI” and “47% had evidence of scarring by cardiac MRI.”
Though it will take several years for all the data to be released, Moderna and Pfizer’s current trials will shed light on the true number of young men who have suffered from cardiac damage following vaccination—clinical or subclinical. Until such data is revealed, accurate cost-benefit analyses cannot be made since the real risk of cardiac vaccine injury is unclear. The existing figures are egregious enough, but the full extent of the harm committed by the biopharmaceutical industry in lockstep with federal governments remains to be discovered.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
