Anti-vaccine influencers [that’s us!] have been fomenting fear about a supposed rise in COVID-shot-induced athletic deaths for a while. Fact-checkers have repeatedly assessed these claims and found them to be without merit. Jonathan Drezner, a sports-medicine physician who studies sudden deaths in athletes, told media outlets last year that he was “not aware of any COVID-19 vaccine-related athletic death.”
[1] The mRNA shots by Pfizer and Moderna are associated with a very small risk of heart inflammation, called myocarditis, which can lead to cardiac arrest. [2] This risk is most pronounced in teenage boys receiving a second dose of the vaccine, but even in that scenario [3] only about one in 10,000 recipients is affected. (Most professional athletes are in their 20s, not teens, so the risk to them is lower.) Myocarditis is a potentially fatal condition, but [4] the version that occurs after vaccination is much less deadly than the heart inflammation induced by many viruses, [5] including SARS-CoV-2. A recent analysis identified [6] only a single death in 104 cases of vaccine-induced myocarditis. In comparison, [7] for every 100 people who get myocarditis from a virus, about 11 will die.
I have allowed myself to number and highlight the blatant lies and misrepresentations that this brief paragraph from The Atlantic is stuffed with. So, let’s go through them one by one.
The goal of this study was to compare the prognosis of this condition with viral infection–related myocarditis over 180 days.
Methods
A territory-wide electronic public health care database in Hong Kong linked with population-based vaccination records was used to conduct a retrospective cohort study. Since the roll-out of BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech), patients aged ≥12 years hospitalized with myocarditis within 28 days after BNT162b2 vaccination were compared against viral infection–related myocarditis recorded before the pandemic (2000-2019), over a 180-day follow-up period (starting from diagnosis of myocarditis).
Meaning, the study looked only at the patients with diagnosed myocarditis in 0 to 28 days post Pfizer jab, and compared those with the patients that were already hospitalized with a viral infection (“The adopted ICD-9-CM codes represent conditions most typically induced by a viral infection in the Hospital Authority setting”) and have been, on top, diagnosed with myocarditis while at it! Do you see the “subtle” difference? They compare the otherwise perfectly healthy recipients of the Pfizer jab in the arbitrary 0-28 days post-jab period with the morbidly sick and hospitalized viral infection patients that happen to be diagnosed with myocarditis to boot. Then they follow both categories for 6 months to see who dies and who doesn’t. See a confounder here? Because the “study” authors don’t.
What is a confounder in a study?
A Confounder is an extraneous variable whose presence affects the variables being studied so that the results do not reflect the actual relationship between the variables under study.
That takes care of the lies [4], [6], [7]. By the way, the “study” indicates that there were 240 myocarditis cases post jab, except 121 of those were outside of the 0-28 days window…
The lie [5], that the “study” somehow proved myocarditis risks post SARS-CoV-2 infection, is exposed by the fact that the “study” specifically excluded Covid-diagnosed and compared the jabbed with the viral infection patients from the 2000-2019 pre-Covid era. “The Virus”, then, has nothing to do with Covid.
As per The Atlantic advice, the next time you watch an athlete (or a commentator) collapse on the TV screen in front of you, do not believe your lying eyes and ears.
P.S. The reader Matt Bult came up with this alternative statement in lieu of The Atlantic’s one":
There I fixed it:
[1] The SPORTS are associated with a very small risk of Commotio cordis, which can lead to cardiac arrest. [2] This risk is most pronounced in teenage boys PLAYING SPORTS, but even in that scenario [3] only about one in 100,000,000 PLAYERS is affected. (Most professional athletes are in their 20s, not teens, so the risk to them is lower.) Commotio cordis is a potentially fatal condition, but [4] the version that occurs DURING SPORTS is much less deadly than the heart inflammation induced by MRNA VACCINES. A recent analysis identified [6] only a ZERO DEATHS in ALL OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. In comparison, [7] for every 40 people who are vaccinated, 1 in 35 (or 1 in 40) gets at least mild heart inflammation following a single Pfizer booster.
[1] The SPORTS are associated with a very small risk of Commotio cordis, which can lead to cardiac arrest. [2] This risk is most pronounced in teenage boys PLAYING SPORTS, but even in that scenario [3] only about one in 100,000,000 PLAYERS is affected. (Most professional athletes are in their 20s, not teens, so the risk to them is lower.) Commotio cordis is a potentially fatal condition, but [4] the version that occurs DURING SPORTS is much less deadly than the heart inflammation induced by MRNA VACCINES. A recent analysis identified [6] only a ZERO DEATHS in ALL OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. In comparison, [7] for every 40 people who are vaccinated, 1 in 35 (or 1 in 40) gets at least mild heart inflammation following a single Pfizer booster.
I am accidentally subscribed to a stacker called Jessica Wildfire. I continue to read her work though, because her articles several times have been on the cutting edge of what is next for the official narrative. She has a recent article where she talks about the excess mortality, and it is concerning she says!
After looking at the data, the conclusion that is obvious to her is that we are greatly undercounting deaths from covid, and that is where the excess mortality is coming from! Covid is causing all the sudden deaths/heart attacks/strokes, according to her analysis.
There I fixed it:
[1] The SPORTS are associated with a very small risk of Commotio cordis, which can lead to cardiac arrest. [2] This risk is most pronounced in teenage boys PLAYING SPORTS, but even in that scenario [3] only about one in 100,000,000 PLAYERS is affected. (Most professional athletes are in their 20s, not teens, so the risk to them is lower.) Commotio cordis is a potentially fatal condition, but [4] the version that occurs DURING SPORTS is much less deadly than the heart inflammation induced by MRNA VACCINES. A recent analysis identified [6] only a ZERO DEATHS in ALL OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. In comparison, [7] for every 40 people who are vaccinated, 1 in 35 (or 1 in 40) gets at least mild heart inflammation following a single Pfizer booster.
I am accidentally subscribed to a stacker called Jessica Wildfire. I continue to read her work though, because her articles several times have been on the cutting edge of what is next for the official narrative. She has a recent article where she talks about the excess mortality, and it is concerning she says!
After looking at the data, the conclusion that is obvious to her is that we are greatly undercounting deaths from covid, and that is where the excess mortality is coming from! Covid is causing all the sudden deaths/heart attacks/strokes, according to her analysis.