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Canadian researchers have called into question the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that downplayed the risk of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.
The study, published in August 2024, examined 4,635 patients hospitalized for myocarditis in France up to 18 months following COVID-19 vaccination. It found that patients who developed myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination showed a lower rate of cardiovascular complications compared to those with “conventional” myocarditis.
In a letter to the editor published on Jan. 27 in JAMA, Dr. Chengliang Yang and Scott J. Tebbutt, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia said the study arbitrarily reduced the number of post-vaccination cases of myocarditis by limiting the diagnosis window to seven days.
According to Yang and Tebbutt, criteria used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Brighton Collaboration recognize the onset of post-vaccination myocarditis symptoms for a significantly longer period — 40 days and six weeks, respectively.
They also cited a 2022 report by the U.S. government-run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) suggesting that myocarditis may appear up to 120 days following vaccination.
“The study’s 7-day window may underestimate vaccine-associated myocarditis,” Yang and Tebbutt wrote. The JAMA study also did not examine cases of pericarditis, a similar cardiovascular condition associated with the COVID-19 shots.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said the 7-day window used in the JAMA study “is really short for most adverse events to appear post-vaccination.”
“Under some paradigms, a person is not even considered ‘vaccinated’ until two weeks after they receive the vaccine. This is based on the constraint of biological processes to develop immunity — but manifesting myocarditis is also a biological process that takes time,” Jablonowski said.
According to the Daily Mail, “In myocarditis, it’s thought that the immune system may register mRNA in Covid vaccines as a threat, leading the immune system to attack itself and cause inflammation of the myocardium, the heart’s muscle.”
“This same mechanism has been linked to pericarditis, which leads to inflammation of the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart,” the Daily Mail added.
Clinical educator Dr. Margaret Christensen, co-founder of the Carpathia Collaborative, said, “It’s no surprise” that a mainstream medical journal published a flawed study downplaying COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
“Those conclusions greatly benefit the bottom line for both the journal and the vaccine. How this got through a peer review process is a testament to just how corrupt the big medical journals are,” Christensen said.
Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough said he has seen a growing number of patients with vaccine-induced cardiac problems.
“As a cardiologist, I am seeing the emergence of subclinical vaccine myopericarditis manifesting months to years after injection of mRNA, as chronic intermittent chest discomfort, palpitations, arrhythmias, heart failure and cardiac arrest,” McCullough said.
McCullough said vaccine-related myocarditis and pericarditis can sometimes appear years after vaccination.
“There should be no arbitrary time windows placed on genetic vaccination side effects which can emerge 5-15 years after administration,” McCullough said. “No healthy person should face either the acute or subacute manifestations of COVID-19 myopericarditis. It is wholly avoidable if vaccination is declined.”
‘Real-world data’ show increased rate of myocarditis following COVID shots
In their letter to the editor, Yang and Tebbutt referred to “real-world data” indicating “increased rates of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination compared to the pre-vaccine period,” including a study that found that average monthly cases of the two conditions increased post-vaccination.
The authors said there is “substantial” evidence linking cardiovascular disease to COVID-19 infection. They noted that this may indicate that the mechanisms triggering post-infection myocarditis are similar to those causing post-vaccination myocarditis. They called for more studies examining this relationship.
“Myocarditis is an expensive and difficult diagnosis to make,” Jablonowski said. “In the presence of small and uncertain numbers, it is no surprise that the scientific community makes contradictory claims.”
Yang and Tebbutt are not the first researchers to question the conclusions of the JAMA study. McCullough, along with biostatistician Jessica Rose, Ph.D., and epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, sent a letter to JAMA identifying “major methodological flaws” in the study “that led to significantly biased conclusions.”
“The 7-day vaccine myocarditis window is obviously biased and may be approximately four times more likely to ascribe myocarditis to the infection as opposed to the vaccine,” the letter stated.
Post-COVID-19 Myocarditis is Not More Severe Than COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Myocarditis – Letter to the Editor reveals major bias in a recent JAMA study.
On August 26th, 2024, Semenzato et al published an article in JAMA claiming that patients who develop myocarditis following an… pic.twitter.com/3QxGLDfJKk
— McCullough Foundation (@McCulloughFund) November 18, 2024
The letter also noted that “the mRNA has been found in blood 28 days after injection … and the vaccine-derived prefusion stabilized Spike protein is circulatory in blood for at least six months … suggesting there is a very large window after vaccination where myocarditis is a plausible vaccine injury syndrome.”
JAMA rejected the letter, which was subsequently published in the journal Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.
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Growing number of studies connecting COVID shots to myocarditis
Several other recent studies have also identified a connection between the COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.
Last year, an FDA-funded study published in The Lancet found that 60% of young people who were hospitalized with myocarditis after receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine still showed signs of myocardial injury roughly six months after getting the shot.
A study of 9.2 million South Koreans published last year in Nature Communications found a 620% increased risk of myocarditis and 175% higher risk of pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.
Last year, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report identified a causal relationship between the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.
A study published earlier this month found a 9.6% fatality rate among people who reported myocarditis or pericarditis after receiving a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, with fatality rates highest among men under 30.
And documents shared with CHD last year, including emails between top officials at U.S. public health agencies, indicated that Israel’s Ministry of Health contacted these agencies as early as Feb. 28, 2021, about data showing a strong link between COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.
Related articles in The Defender
- ‘Stunning’ 620% Higher Risk of Myocarditis After mRNA COVID Vaccines
- 60% of Young People With COVID Vaccine-induced Myocarditis Showed Heart Damage 6 Months Later
- mRNA COVID Shots May Cause Myocarditis — But Nothing Else, HHS-Funded Report Concludes
- Study Finds 9.6% Fatality Rate Among People Who Reported Myocarditis or Pericarditis After an mRNA COVID Vaccine
- Mounting Evidence Suggests CDC Hid Data on COVID Vaccines and Myocarditis
- ‘Truth Is Becoming More Obvious’: Author of New Peer-reviewed Study Calls for Moratorium on COVID mRNA Vaccines
