One in 35 people suffered heart damage after Moderna booster shot, study says
Farmers Forum staff
A new study from Switzerland has found alarming rates of heart inflammation, or myocarditis, among people who received a booster shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
The peer-reviewed work, published in the European Journal of Heart Failure, followed 777 hospital employees who got the Moderna booster between December 2021 and February 2022. They compared them with 777 matched controls who did not get the booster.
The researchers measured the levels of a protein called troponin in the blood, which is a marker of heart muscle damage. They found that 5.1 % of the booster recipients had elevated troponin levels three days after vaccination, indicating myocarditis. This was significantly higher than the 0.6 % of the controls who had elevated troponin levels.
More shockingly, they found that 2.8 % of the booster recipients — or one in 35 people — had vaccine-associated myocardial injury, which means they had symptoms or signs of heart inflammation, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or abnormal heart rhythms. This was also significantly higher than the 0.1 % of the control group.
The study also found that most of the cases of myocarditis occurred in women, especially young women, contrary to previous reports that suggested more cases in men. The researchers speculated that this could be due to differences in immune responses or genetic factors.
The good news is that most of the cases of myocarditis were mild and transient, and no one developed major adverse cardiac events within 30 days. The researchers attributed this to the fact that they screened and warned the booster recipients about their risk and advised them to rest and avoid exercise. They also provided them with medical care and follow-up.
However, the study raises serious questions about the safety and necessity of the Moderna booster shot, especially for young and healthy people who have a low risk of severe COVID-19 illness. The researchers called for more studies to understand the mechanism and long-term consequences of myocarditis after mRNA vaccination.
Moderna has not commented on the study.
The study comes as many countries are rolling out or considering booster shots for their populations, amid concerns about waning immunity and new variants. The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged wealthy countries to delay or limit booster shots until more people in low- and middle-income countries have access to vaccines.
Dr. John Campbell, a nurse educator and popular YouTube commentator, analyzed the study in a video posted on July 26. He said he was “furious” and “astounded” by the findings and criticized the regulators for not taking action on this issue.
He noted that this study is high quality because it employed “active surveillance” of a group of subjects rather than the passive approach of previous COVID vaccine studies that rely on data collected from patients only after they have come forward to complain of an adverse reaction..
Campbell declared: “If we don’t get an immediate and urgent response from regulators around the world, then they just hold themselves up to public mockery, ridicule. What are they there for? What are they there for if they don’t act on this immediately?”
