In a hearing called by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson titled “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines,” many false statements about the vaccines were made. This is a special edition of our newsletter where we will tackle several claims from that hearing.

In this hearing we heard claims that COVID vaccines cause deadly heart attacks.

COVID itself can to contribute to strokes and heart attacks. However, studies show the opposite for vaccines, including this latest study that shows that staying current with COVID-19 vaccines cuts the risk of strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks in half in people over 65 and those with certain health conditions. The study involved over 12.7 million older adults and about 78,600 people with severe kidney disease. It found that the bivalent booster is about 47% effective in preventing heart-related issues in the older group, and 51% effective in the kidney disease group.

Some people may get myocarditis risk and blood clot risk confused and jump to conclusions. The mRNA vaccines do carry a small risk of myocarditis in young men and adolescent boys, but it often resolves on its own relatively quickly. Anti-vaccine activists have used prior concerns about a particular type of blood clot associated with adenovirus vector vaccines. mRNA vaccines have a minimal risk of blood clots. These facts contradict rather than confirm the paramedic’s bias.

The risks of myocarditis from COVID far outweigh the risks of myocarditis from COVID vaccines. COVID infection itself can cause heart failure or a heart attack. Rates of heart disease surged starting in the year 2020, before COVID vaccines were available.

In a hearing called by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson titled “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines,” many false statements about the vaccines were made. This is a special edition of our newsletter where we will tackle several claims from that hearing.

A major missive against COVID vaccines in the hearing claimed that they cause infertility and miscarriage.

The conspiracy theory that vaccine manufacturers are purposely trying to depopulate humanity is not new and would not be sustainably secret, given the number of people who have worked on mRNA vaccination over the decades.

While COVID itself has been shown to increase the risks of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, studies do not show that same association with the COVID vaccine. Data collected from the United States through v-safe and from Norway both show that there is no increased risk of miscarriage after the COVID vaccine.

This systematic review and meta-analysis, which included 149 685 women, found no increased risk of miscarriage and had comparable rates for ongoing pregnancy or live birth. Conversely, some studies suggest that COVID infection itself in early pregnancy can cause miscarriage.

In a hearing called by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson titled “The Corruption of Science and Federal Health Agencies: How Health Officials Downplayed and Hid Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Associated with the COVID-19 Vaccines,” many false statements about the vaccines were made. This is a special edition of our newsletter where we will tackle several claims from that hearing.

Senator Johnson claimed that COVID vaccines have caused 38,607 reported deaths.

These claims are based on laypeople searching the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. As noted on the VAERS website, anyone can report anything to VAERS, regardless of causation. If this claim were true to any degree, we would expect more deaths in areas with higher vaccination rates. However, higher excess deaths were seen in areas with lower vaccination rates.

The website’s most important warning helps put the above claims into context: “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Reports to VAERS can also be biased. As a result, there are limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.”

These death claims usually don’t have any proof to back them up.

What is the likely number of deaths actually caused by COVID vaccines? Careful reviews by CDC experts have found nine deaths in the United States linked to a rare blood-clotting condition after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. No other deaths have been confirmed as caused by any COVID shot, out of hundreds of millions of doses given. That works out to far less than one death per million doses, many times lower than the risk of dying from COVID itself.