More misinformation about myocarditis and the covid vaccines

Why did the charity Myocarditis UK recommend the vaccine to children and then ignore the warnings about it?

Our previous article described how, in 2022, the British Heart Foundation website stated that people should not be worried about getting the covid vaccine since:

there is no greater risk of developing heart inflammation after a Covid-19 vaccine than after other common vaccines, including the flu jab

It turned out that this advice was based on a flawed study published in the Lancet. The BHF subsequently removed the above statement and link to the article without explanation, replacing it with a statement that myocarditis was a ‘very rare side effect’ of the covid vaccines. Currently their website states more honestly

There's a link between mRNA Covid-19 vaccines and an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.

After we published the article our colleague Dr Ros Jones told us about an even worse case of failure by a relevant charity to warn of this increased risk of myocarditis. Incredibly, the charity was Myocarditis UK whose website in September 2021 was actively promoting covid vaccination for children.

On 14 September 2021 Ros wrote the following to Sarah Baker, Head of Development and Fundraising at Myocarditis UK:

Subject: Myocarditis and Covid-19 vaccines

Dear Sarah,

I am a retired paediatrician and somewhat surprised to see that your website appears to be actively promoting COVID-19 vaccination for children. It would be absolutely tragic if this led to an increase in myocarditis cases in adolescents. There are some points on your website that are factually questionable. Firstly, there is a lot of debate about the true incidence of vaccine-associated myocarditis, mostly because it is not being sought systematically. The CDC rely largely on the VAERS adverse reports system but I expect you've seen the data presented at their safety update meeting COVID-19 Vaccine safety updates (cdc.gov) , particularly slides 25-28 show the increase in myocarditis by vaccine dose, gender and age bands compared to the background risk. The data from Israel is also very compelling, attached below, giving an estimate of 1 in 6230 for young men aged 16-19 after the second dose and one in 10,463 for 20-15s. This contrasts with 1 in 71,785 for >30s. It probably gives a better estimate of risk, given that Israel is the only country to have systematically sought out adverse events rather than relying on a voluntary reporting system such as the Yellow Cards here, which are known to seriously underestimate.

I also saw that you were quoting the north american study suggesting a six-fold risk of post-covid myocarditis set against post-vaccination events. However this paper used a 90-day window following Covid whereas most of the vaccine related episodes occur within the first 7 days. Also they do not have a true denominator as many children with covid will be asymptomatic or have extremely mild symptoms and therefore will not show up on a health insurance database. This recently published data seems to show the exact reverse https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.21262866v1. The truth is that the risk from vaccination is still not fully elucidated, in particular whether those cases which seem to settle quite quickly, may have ongoing cardiac damage peds.2021-053427.full.pdf (aappublications.org). This last article is from a group who have been advising the JCVI and it was partly on this basis that the decision was made on 3rd September NOT to recommend vaccination for 12-15s. The JCVI were keen to wait to see whether the significant cardiac MRI changes reported by this group, did or did not resolve over the next 2-3 months. It is this advice to wait, given by the JCVI, which has now been overturned by the CMOs apparently not on the basis of long covid (also mentioned on your website) but on the basis of reducing educational disruption and affect on children's mental health.

One helpful way to estimate the incidence of myocarditis following natural covid would be to look at the incidence of myocarditis in 2020 (ie prior to the vaccination programme) compared to say the previous 5 years. Would this be data that Myocarditis UK would hold? If so, I would be very grateful if you could share it with me.

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

Dr Ros Jones, retired consultant paediatrician, member of the Health Advisory & Recovery Team

On 15 Sept 2021 Sarah Baker replied:

Dear Ros

Thank you very much for reaching out and bringing this to my attention.

I have forward your email on to Professor Prasad, as he is head of our research programme, as you have highlighted some information and issues that I do not feel qualified to respond to.

Some of the articles on our website have been posted by our SEO company whilst I was on furlough to assist with the Google tracking etc and unfortunately, your email has brought to my attention that some of the blog articles they have posted may not have been vetted correctly, so once again, I thank you for this.

Professor Prasad will offer a more concise reply but I did just want you to know that we are not ignoring your email.

Warm regards,

Sarah

Rose replied on 15 Sept 2021 saying simply:

Dear Sarah , many thanks, I look forward to his response. I would hate any misinformation to interfere with the excellent work of the charity.

BW, Ros

Ros never received a further reply.