[HN Gopher] Heart inflammation cases in young men higher than ex...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Heart inflammation cases in young men higher than expected after
       mRNA vaccines
        
       Author : smaili
       Score  : 309 points
       Date   : 2021-06-10 18:19 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | kybernetyk wrote:
       | This means it's working.
        
         | seaman1921 wrote:
         | the point is - it should be studied whether this is causing any
         | permanent heart damage
        
       | JPKab wrote:
       | My mother-in-law died 9 days ago, after being on life-support for
       | 2 weeks. All following a sudden onset cardiac arrest 3 hours
       | after getting her second Pfizer shot. She had a fever from the
       | shot, was sitting in the living room watching a movie with
       | family, and her heart suddenly stopped. She was healthy and in
       | her early 60's. The medical team, after a week, concluded it was
       | likely vaccine induced, and reported it to VAERS.
       | 
       | A neighbor of mine, who is 35 year old male, had an almost
       | exactly similar event. Because he was younger, he survived. His
       | medical team also reported to VAERS, and the Mayo clinic is
       | researching it.
       | 
       | The vaccine is generally safe, and you should get it if you
       | aren't immune to COVID. That being said, the effort to prevent
       | vaccine hesitancy has suppressed media reporting on these events,
       | understandably. They are likely more common than we think, but
       | still relatively rare.
       | 
       | MRNA is going to be a revolutionary technology, but we should be
       | honest about the fact that there are going to be some individuals
       | who will experience some extremely nasty side-effects.
        
         | myfavoritedog wrote:
         | Yep. I know of at least five stroke or adverse heart events in
         | my social circle or one hop out, all had been vaccinated
         | recently.
         | 
         | Like you, I maintain that it's still a lesser risk than
         | COVID... but there seems to be a lot of media/political
         | pushback to just acknowledging the possibility of vaccine
         | problems.
        
         | throwkeep wrote:
         | > That being said, the effort to prevent vaccine hesitancy has
         | suppressed media reporting on these events, understandably.
         | 
         | This works with toddlers, but not with adults. Suppressing
         | information ultimately leads to less trust, more hesitancy and
         | more conspiracy theories (they were hiding X, what else are
         | they hiding?). It's better to be transparent from the start.
        
       | cronix wrote:
       | Dr. Bret Weinstein, Dr. Robert Malone (invented mRNA tech) and
       | Steve Kirsch had a most fascinating discussion on youtube that
       | touches on this, but touches on much bigger direct and indirect
       | issues as well. I'd urge people to watch:
       | https://youtu.be/-_NNTVJzqtY?t=591
        
         | briefcomment wrote:
         | This was worthwhile. Not sure why you're being downvoted.
        
       | beefman wrote:
       | This is based on VAERS data. I encourage the curious to look at
       | this data. I did. I would characterize its quality as so poor
       | that probably no conclusions at all can be drawn from it. And I
       | usually find myself defending the use of noisy and/or small data
       | in similar situations.
        
         | jb775 wrote:
         | So instead of wanting to look into a possible major issue with
         | the safety of the Covid vaccines, you'd rather insult the data
         | without providing any substantiating source, then put your
         | hands over your ears and say "LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOUUUUU
         | LA LA LA LA"
        
         | notjes wrote:
         | Covid-19 is meticulously measured and tracked in every human
         | being, but no one is interested in adverse vaccine effects.
         | Things that make you think...
        
           | codyb wrote:
           | No one's interested in adverse vaccine side effects?
           | 
           | That seems rather counter to my impression which is based on
           | the number of adults who're hesitant and the fact that FDA
           | halted use of Johnson and Johnson vaccines once already and
           | Europe has had it's own fair share of hand wringing about the
           | Astro-Zeneca vaccine.
        
             | seattle_spring wrote:
             | Agreed with your observation. Every news source has been
             | brimming with stories on potential adverse reactions as
             | they are discovered, including ones that I'm sure GP would
             | dismiss as "MSM" or "the radical left." The reality is that
             | all current evidence suggests the virus is still far worse
             | than any vaccine side effects.
        
               | bena wrote:
               | I mean, look at the guy's hyperbolic rhetoric. He's not
               | interested in any discussion in which he might have to
               | confront the fact that he is wrong.
        
             | Fomite wrote:
             | Working with data from monitoring vaccine side effects were
             | two of my early projects in graduate school. They are
             | _intensely_ monitored - vaccine data is some of the best
             | quality data in the infectious disease world.
        
         | walterbell wrote:
         | _> Shimabukuro also said the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) -
         | another safety monitoring system - showed an increased
         | incidence of heart inflammation in 16 to 39 year olds after
         | their second shot when compared to the rate observed after the
         | first dose._
         | 
         | https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/monitoring/...
         | 
         |  _> The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) is a collaborative
         | project between CDC's Immunization Safety Office and nine
         | health care organizations. The VSD started in 1990 and
         | continues today in order to monitor safety of vaccines and
         | conduct studies about rare and serious adverse events following
         | immunization._
         | 
         | The nine HMOs are:                 Kaiser Permanente
         | Washington, Seattle, WA       Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
         | Institute, Boston, MA       HealthPartners Institute,
         | Minneapolis, MN       Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR
         | Kaiser Permanente Northern CA       Kaiser Permanente CO
         | Denver Health, CO       Marshfield Clinic Research Institute,
         | WI       Kaiser Permanente Southern CA
        
         | ezekg wrote:
         | I've heard less than 1% of adverse reactions are actually
         | reported to VAERS.
        
           | larrywright wrote:
           | I've heard this too, from anti-vaxxers mostly. VAERS is the
           | medical equivalent of Yelp. Anyone can post anything there
           | and looking at the unverified data is not a reliable
           | indication of anything. And, anti-vaxxers have been known to
           | go report things in order to bolster their arguments.
        
             | bena wrote:
             | Not to mention, people who parrot that extrapolation don't
             | give the same sort of consideration in the other direction.
             | 
             | Every assumption goes towards their preferred conspiracy.
        
           | Kognito wrote:
           | Yeah, how many people actually bother to report their
           | symptoms if they're not serious enough to warrant a trip to
           | the doctor (who might report on their behalf)?
           | 
           | Mild myo can go undetected quite easily. In fact, it's known
           | well as being a cause of death in young athletes who only
           | learn of the condition when their heart gives out during
           | intense physical exertion.
        
             | notjes wrote:
             | I am curious: Who reports that dude that died of a heart
             | attack laying in a ditch somewhere.
        
             | dahfizz wrote:
             | Anecdotally, my girlfriend got the moderna vaccine and got
             | pretty bad skin rashes from it. She went to report it
             | through a link her provider sent her, but the website would
             | not allow her to report any side effects because it had
             | been longer than 48 hours since her shot.
        
         | Fomite wrote:
         | The...stunning mediocrity of VAERS data is in the "it is known"
         | category, and has been since well before I started graduate
         | school. It's important because it's useful for emergent self-
         | reported issues, but there's a reason the concept of post-
         | licensure trials exist.
        
         | shadowgovt wrote:
         | VAERS is a clearinghouse. It's a vital tool for finding
         | evidence of possible unexpected interactions that should be
         | investigated, but it's basically textbook "correlations that do
         | not imply causation" data.
         | 
         | The _most_ a correlation in VAERS, by itself, should ever
         | generate is a  "huh, that's interesting" reaction and possibly
         | a controlled follow-up study. HHS has a very large disclaimer
         | on the dataset's description (https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html).
         | 
         | The data is also, at this phase of collection, unfiltered and
         | unverified. Self-reporting biases and simple mistakes are a
         | known concern. There's a relatively famous story of someone, as
         | a sanity-check on the process, reporting that a flu vaccine had
         | turned them into the Incredible Hulk.
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20130419004549/http://neurodiver...
        
         | DaniloDias wrote:
         | What is the right way to collect this data, given that the
         | frontline practitioners are actively discouraging any patients
         | from making a connection for adverse reactions with the
         | vaccine?
         | 
         | Put another way: Isn't VAERS a necessary solution to ensure
         | that the healthcare system does not misrepresent the safety of
         | the vaccines? Transparency should be a first principle
         | requirement for science.
        
           | smhenderson wrote:
           | _given that the frontline practitioners are actively
           | discouraging any patients from making a connection for
           | adverse reactions with the vaccine?_
           | 
           | Do you have a source for this? As another poster replied, I
           | was encouraged to report symptoms and given a packet with
           | information on what to look out for, what to report and a
           | website to do so.
           | 
           | Same with my wife and two adult children.
        
             | DaniloDias wrote:
             | Sources are first hand- sorry. Don't have documentation to
             | point to. Know of a two healthy people who were diagnosed
             | with diabetes within a couple days of the second shot.
             | 
             | Apparently this phenomenon is known for actual covid
             | sufferers.
             | 
             | https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/why-are-people-
             | developing...
        
             | mypalmike wrote:
             | I was also encouraged to report symptoms (or lack thereof)
             | through a website. Unfortunately the website was thoroughly
             | broken and I was unable to do so.
        
               | smhenderson wrote:
               | I'll admit I did not even attempt to report anything. I
               | didn't have any meaningful symptoms after my first shot
               | (Moderna) and the symptoms I had after the second were
               | pretty bad but also everything I expected based on what I
               | heard from others. Chills, muscle aches, typical flu-like
               | symptoms that lasted just about 24 hours.
               | 
               | So I can't speak to the quality of any websites. But I do
               | not recall anyone before the parent comment saying they
               | were actively discouraged by health workers to not report
               | symptoms.
        
           | Fomite wrote:
           | The answer is a Phase IV clinical trial, which a number of
           | vaccines have undergone post-approval and I suspect the
           | COVID-19 vaccines will as well.
        
             | DaniloDias wrote:
             | Does the fact that the major vaccine vendors are
             | encouraging placebo recipients to be notified about their
             | receipt of a placebo, plus encouragement that they go get
             | the vaccine affect your confidence in the trial process for
             | this vaccine?
             | 
             | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
             | shots/2021/02/19/9691430...
             | 
             | "According to Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, interim analyses
             | after approximately 2 months of follow-up suggest their
             | vaccines are 90% to 95% effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2
             | infection, although no peer review of the data has been
             | conducted to date. Both companies now claim they have an
             | "ethical obligation" to offer vaccine as soon as possible
             | to all participants who received placebo, considering the
             | strong results and participants' contribution to the
             | research."
        
           | dv_dt wrote:
           | After both doses of my vaccine I was given a link and
           | instructions how to report adverse reactions.
        
             | jb775 wrote:
             | By the looks of it, you should keep that handy.
        
               | dv_dt wrote:
               | I'm a few weeks past the most likely time period for this
               | to show up, and I can Google so not too worried about
               | keeping it handy. If you do have symptoms I'd contact my
               | regular doctor first anyway.
        
       | tchvil wrote:
       | When looking about heart inflammation, some Youtube videos popped
       | up.
       | 
       | A UK doctor talking about heart inflammation of young men in
       | Israel a month ago, and an update two weeks ago:
       | https://youtu.be/uw2xmtd8dkA
        
       | malwarebytess wrote:
       | Something I wonder about:
       | 
       | What if inflammation like this is common in many illnesses and
       | simply goes undetected? A previously unseen symptom because no
       | one was paying attention and small illnesses like colds don't
       | receive the level of scrutiny that Covid-19 received.
        
         | phantom784 wrote:
         | Wouldn't the control group have the same level of inflammation
         | in that case?
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | raydev wrote:
       | Crazy coincidence. I'm in my late 30s, now 3 days out from my
       | first dose of Pfizer.
       | 
       | I woke up kinda uncomfortable today. Like I'd already had too
       | much coffee just getting out of bed. Within an hour I felt
       | significanty stressed, and I had vague pressure throughout my
       | upper chest, both sides. I was convinced it was my first ever
       | panic attack since it didn't feel like a life ending threat.
       | 
       | No acute or vague pains either. My heart rate was elevated like I
       | was currently on a pleasant walk (I was laying on the floor
       | wondering what to do). Apple Watch didn't think anything was
       | worth alerting about.
       | 
       | The peak of the "event" lasted about 20 minutes, and I went for
       | an actual walk once I calmed down a bit. I felt comfortable
       | enough to join my personal trainer for a pretty heavy workout a
       | couple hours later. No issues during the workout, but a few hours
       | post-workout now, I don't feel the usual calm/tired feeling.
       | Still kinda feeling like I've had too much caffeine.
       | 
       | I'm now wondering if this is what happened to me.
        
       | yk wrote:
       | Slightly off topic, but it is quite interesting that US media
       | very consistently uses "Pfizer" if the news is good and some
       | variant of "Pfizer/Biontec" if the news is bad. The opposite
       | holds of course for the German press, which addresses the vaccine
       | as "Biontec" when the news is good.
        
         | rootusrootus wrote:
         | My skept-o-meter is twitching. I'd have to see actual numbers
         | backing that up, as it looks much more like confirmation bias
         | to me.
        
         | bonzini wrote:
         | Somebody even made a copypasta about it in Italian. My
         | translation is the following:
         | 
         | "I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering
         | to as Pfizer vaccine, is in fact, the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine,
         | or as I've recently taken to calling it, BioNTech plus Pfizer
         | vaccine. Pfizer did not develop the vaccine by itself, but
         | rather another company called BioNTech created the original
         | formula, which went through Pfizer's clinical trials and became
         | the vaccine we use these days.
         | 
         | Many people who got the vaccine refer to it as the Pfizer
         | vaccine, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of
         | events, the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine which is widely used today
         | is often called "Pfizer", and many of its users are not aware
         | that it is basically the vaccine initially developed by
         | BioNTech.
         | 
         | There really is a Pfizer contribute to the vaccine, and these
         | people should partly thank that corporation, but it is just a
         | part of what allowed them to be vaccinated. Pfizer is the
         | distributor and responsible for clinical trials. Clinical
         | trials are an essential part of a vaccine, but useless by
         | itself; they can only be done once somebody developed the
         | vaccine in the first place. So, the Pfizer vaccine can only be
         | used because it was developed in the first place by BioNTech:
         | the whole system is basically BioNTech with Pfizer
         | contributions, or BioNTech/Pfizer. The so-called Pfizer vaccine
         | should really be called BioNTech/Pfizer!"
        
           | skocznymroczny wrote:
           | In case someone has never heard it before, above is a variant
           | of "Stallman GNU/Linux copypasta"
        
           | dependsontheq wrote:
           | Watching the various vaccines fail in production or in
           | clinical trials gives an interesting perspective on what an
           | amazing and lucky combination BioNTech/Pfizer are. So I think
           | we should be grateful for both companies, amazing scientists
           | and amazing engineers.
        
             | Fomite wrote:
             | The speed and effectiveness are astounding. I was braced
             | this fall for "It's probably worthwhile for high risk
             | individuals" effectiveness metrics in the 50%'s.
        
       | peanut_worm wrote:
       | Did anyone else get really bad side effects? I felt awful after
       | my first shot and now I an currently recovering from my second
       | shot and feel even worse. I don't think I have ever felt this bad
       | from an illness.
        
         | JPKab wrote:
         | There is a relatively high rate (fully acknowledged) of high
         | fever from the MRNA vaccines, particularly after the second
         | dose. Compared to standard vaccines of the past, the rate of
         | fever and illness is dramatically higher. But COVID is so
         | dangerous and contagious that the benefit is higher than the
         | cost.
         | 
         | I say this as somebody (if you look at some of my previous
         | comments) who lost my Mother-in-law due to a rare side-effect
         | that is still being researched after her second shot.
        
           | Fomite wrote:
           | Note it depends on which "standardized vaccines of the past"
           | you mean. The side effects for the smallpox vaccine were
           | horrific by modern standards.
        
             | JPKab wrote:
             | Excellent point. And I would have innoculated every single
             | one of my kids in a heartbeat, knowing the risks, because
             | smallpox is such a vicious disease.
        
           | Izkata wrote:
           | > But COVID is so dangerous
           | 
           | It's only a little worse than the yearly flu, and heavily
           | weighted towards old age (unlike the flu which badly affects
           | all ages).
           | 
           | > and contagious
           | 
           | Yeah, that's much higher, which is why the absolute numbers
           | look so bad.
        
           | ostenning wrote:
           | It's alarming that I keep hearing about people who have lost
           | people from a vaccine. It's now at a higher rate than the
           | virus itself. I'm awaiting Pfizer but I'm quite concerned.
           | 
           | Which vaccine did she take?
        
             | JPKab wrote:
             | I want to emphasize that these events are rare, although
             | probably not as rare as you we think, and that I recommend
             | to people to get vaccinated.
             | 
             | That being said, I don't know a single person personally (I
             | live in Colorado, with lots of family and friends in
             | Virginia,NC, and DC) that has died or been hospitalized for
             | COVID, and I happen to know 2 people who suffered cardiac
             | arrest from the Pfizer vaccine, with one (my MIL) dead. The
             | other person is a prominent technologist and former
             | Googler, and he suffered several heart attacks in the
             | hospital after his cardiac arrest. Both were in the midst
             | of a post 2nd shot fever a few hours later when the
             | incidents happened.
             | 
             | It should be noted that my experience is anecdotal, and if
             | I lived in NYC, I would certainly know several people
             | hospitalized/dead of COVID. COVID is a very scary virus in
             | the sense that it can cause us to let our guard down. Why?
             | Because of viral load. If you are exposed to a single
             | person with it, your illness will probably not be severe,
             | but if you and dozens of others get on a subway car, sick
             | with covid, a person getting that fat viral load is far
             | more in danger.
             | 
             | My primary issue with the way my MIL and my friend were
             | handled with their vaccine induced cardiac arrests was the
             | way the doctors initially (for roughly a week with both, in
             | separate hospital in separate states) gaslit the families
             | and wouldn't even discuss the vaccine being AT ALL RELATED.
             | It was blatantly obvious to us that they were following PR
             | playbooks either forced on them from their employers and/or
             | medical licensing boards. The utter and obvious lack of any
             | form of curiosity was the biggest tell.
             | 
             | We can't talk about what happened on social media, at all.
             | It gets deleted and flagged as "misinformation" and
             | "encouraging vaccine hesitancy". The private censorship
             | regime is clumsy, and run/moderated by people who don't
             | seem to understand nuance or respect the intelligence of
             | the public. The result of this?
             | 
             | My wife's sister and her husband, who until the incident
             | were NPR listening liberals who were excessive in their
             | obedience to public health authorities, are now listening
             | to fucking Alex Jones. They weren't able to vent their
             | anger and grief or get any information from the normal
             | spaces, and have lost ALL trust of public health
             | authorities. It's horrible to watch, and I"m doing my best
             | to try to keep them grounded as they grieve. They were all
             | in the room when the cardiac arrest happened, and it was
             | very traumatic for them. The denials and gaslighting of the
             | medical staff compounded the issue. (At one point, a doctor
             | insisted my MIL had choked. When told they weren't eating,
             | he insisted that she must have snuck off to get food and
             | sat back down while chewing. Imagine what it was like to
             | hear that idiocy for them)
             | 
             | For those of you clamoring for censhorship, ask yourself if
             | my in-laws now becoming Alex Jones listeners was a positive
             | effect of this regime we encouraged to form after Trump's
             | election?
        
               | ostenning wrote:
               | Thanks for the detailed response.
               | 
               | I feel for your family. That's a difficult situation to
               | deal with, and the marginalisation from society could
               | only make it worse.
               | 
               | We need to be extremely critical and honest with our
               | medicines, gas lighting should never happen in what is
               | suppose to be an objective and unpolitical profession.
        
         | poulsbohemian wrote:
         | FWIW: I had covid over a two week period. It was easily the
         | sickest I've ever been. I just got my second shot yesterday and
         | I'd say both shots were like covid-lite. Basically all the same
         | symptoms, just condensed into a 24-48 hour block and at not
         | quite as bad.
        
         | Izkata wrote:
         | It's a thing: https://old.reddit.com/r/CovidVaccinated/
        
         | macawfish wrote:
         | I had headaches for like two weeks after my second Pfizer shot.
         | I drank plenty of water and was getting electrolytes, so I'm
         | guessing it was a side effect.
        
         | post_break wrote:
         | Had both covid and 2 shots. Covid was the most pain I've ever
         | felt in my entire life. I thought I was going to die. And I'm
         | "young". The shots were like the kiddie ride version of it.
         | Still felt bad but man, I wish I could have had that over
         | covid.
        
       | _Microft wrote:
       | The interesting table with absolute numbers is on page 18 of [0].
       | Expected and observed cases are cases of myocarditis /
       | pericarditis here. Crude rate is the number of cases per 1
       | million administered doses. Use landscape mode if you are reading
       | this from a mobile device, the table is narrow enough for that.
       | Age group  Doses       Crude   Expected Observed
       | administ.   rate    cases    cases            12-15 yrs
       | 134,041    22.4     0-1        2        16-17 yrs  2,258,932
       | 35.0     2-19      79       18-24 yrs  9,776,719    20.6     8-83
       | 196
       | 
       | [0] (PDF) https://www.fda.gov/media/150054/download
        
         | sudoaza wrote:
         | That's about the same rate as clots in AstraZeneca's vaccine.
        
           | onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
           | So if I'm reading this correctly - that means about 1 in
           | 90,000 people are getting myocarditis that otherwise you
           | wouldn't expect to get myocarditis from the vaccine.
           | 
           | Is that correct, and if so, is that a big deal?
        
         | jb775 wrote:
         | But this is only reported cases. Most people wouldn't report
         | even if they had symptoms. Others could be impacted without
         | currently having symptoms.
         | 
         | Now prop this data of _actual_ medical conditions created as a
         | result of getting the covid vaccine up against the likelihood
         | of getting covid in the first place, and the likelihood of
         | having lifelong side effects as a result of getting covid. Risk
         | of getting an experimental vaccine _substantially_ outweighs
         | the reward of the  "protection" it provides.
        
           | nosianu wrote:
           | Not sure why teh parent post got downvoted - we have plenty
           | of examples right here in the various sub threads of people
           | telling us exactly that. Almost none of all those who wrote a
           | comment with their own anecdote seem to have reported it,
           | many only realizing that there even is anything worth
           | reporting after reading this discussion right here.
           | 
           | For most people it is perfectly normal not to report anything
           | unless it's bad enough that they have to see a doctor. Most
           | people already expect some side effects for a few days since
           | we've been told to expect it, for anyone following the media.
           | 
           | A statement about under-reporting is not automatically "anti-
           | vax".
        
             | mopsi wrote:
             | > _For most people it is perfectly normal not to report
             | anything unless it 's bad enough that they have to see a
             | doctor._
             | 
             | This is exactly what's making me restless. Young men are
             | the least likely group to see a doctor unless it's really
             | bad. Thus the official statistics may be severely
             | underreporting the real situation.
        
         | delecti wrote:
         | Crude rate seems to be observed cases per million doses
         | administered.
         | 
         | So a lot more incidents than expected, but still extremely rare
         | (0.002% of doses).
         | 
         | Edit: missed an extra "0" in that percent, thanks for the the
         | catch everyone who did
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | pama wrote:
           | You mean 0.002% not 0.02%
        
           | Swenrekcah wrote:
           | For those getting worried like I was, it's 0.002% or one in
           | 50,000, not 0.02% or one in 5,000.
        
             | Kognito wrote:
             | I don't have the exact figures to hand but a rough googling
             | seems to suggest a 1 in 100k risk for clotting in the AZ
             | vaccine for young adults which of course, in many countries
             | has been withdrawn for such rates in those groups.
             | 
             | https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/
             | a...
        
             | iso1210 wrote:
             | I think in general percentages less than 0.1% should be
             | reported as "1-in-XXX". Certainly when I create pages to
             | measure packet loss I put 1 in 50,000 rather than 0.002%
        
               | penagwin wrote:
               | As a data oriented person I would prefer if the
               | percentage is always available, otherwise I have to
               | calculate it to use with other numbers.
               | 
               | For example: (chance of getting covid) * (chance of
               | specific side effect) = chance of getting covid and
               | experiencing side effect.
        
               | tomp wrote:
               | All percentages should be reported as "1-in-XXX".
               | 
               | The difference (in "certainty", not "risk") between 90%
               | (1-in-10) and 95% (1-in-20) is the same as the difference
               | between 98% (1-in-50) and 99% (1-in-100).
        
             | b0tzzzzzzman wrote:
             | Yes, let's all look at statistics and not recognize these
             | are real people who are developing heart damage from 'safe'
             | vaccines.
        
               | pfg wrote:
               | A 0.002% risk of experiencing myocarditis due to the
               | vaccine seems a better deal than catching COVID, which
               | brings a ~0.3% risk of experiencing (symptomatic)
               | myocarditis in a (to my non-expert understanding) similar
               | demographic[1]. Many experts assume COVID will become
               | endemic, so this is not a theoretical risk.
               | 
               | [1]: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/full
               | article/...
        
           | xvector wrote:
           | As jb775 said, most cases simply won't be reported. I
           | wouldn't be surprised if the actual rate is 10-50x higher.
        
           | _Microft wrote:
           | Thanks! It also says that in the footnote. I added it to the
           | comment.
        
           | thebean11 wrote:
           | But it's only been a few months since administration, will
           | the gap between expected and actual keep growing, or will
           | they eventually level out?
        
             | delecti wrote:
             | Considering it mentions this is showing up within 1 week of
             | administration, and there are already millions of "doses
             | administered" accounted for in the figures, I wouldn't
             | expect the rate to change significantly either way. I'm not
             | a statistician though.
        
       | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
       | Any information on the rate of myocarditis after vaccination vs
       | myocarditis after infection?
        
       | sudoaza wrote:
       | Maybe has to do with testing it on healthy people who doesn't
       | represent general population?
        
         | Jolter wrote:
         | It's just too rare to pop up in the studies, even if n=30000
        
       | splithalf wrote:
       | We've known this for a month or so. The bottom line is that
       | experts still recommend getting the vaccine.
        
         | breadzeppelin__ wrote:
         | meanwhile the many experts who don't recommend it are widely
         | and very vocally shunned as 'science deniers'.
         | 
         | Andddd downvoted. Cant even point out that there are actual
         | experts on both sides of the argument without people being
         | upset about it.
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | I'm pretty sure you can still dig up climate scientists that
           | deny global warming.
           | 
           | Playing the "both sides" argument implies a coin or card,
           | where both sides are equal. In reality this argument is
           | played by people who know their side is dwarfed but want to
           | project legitimacy.
        
           | seattle_spring wrote:
           | Given everything we know about the virus and the vaccines,
           | that seems like an appropriate label.
           | 
           | > Andddd downvoted. Cant even point out that there are actual
           | experts on both sides of the argument without people being
           | upset about it
           | 
           | I doubt anyone who downvoted you is "upset."
        
           | version_five wrote:
           | I certainly don't agree with "denier" type labeling. But I
           | would be as wary of someone who councils people not to get
           | vaccinated as I am of people who pretend unequivocally that
           | there is no risk to it.
           | 
           | Personally, I feel like there has been an escalation where
           | some have been so adamant that it is perfectly safe, that
           | others jump on ultra-rare side-effects as evidence that it's
           | not.
        
           | tomtheelder wrote:
           | There will be experts, that is people with relevant
           | credentials, on both sides of every issue, but that doesn't
           | mean they always ought to be listened to. They are being
           | heavily criticized here because the science _overwhelmingly_
           | supports vaccination.
        
             | Growling_owl wrote:
             | > science _overwhelmingly_ supports vaccination
             | 
             | Not to be pedantic about it, but science always, and in any
             | event supports non vaccination for self and everybody else
             | vaccinating instead.
             | 
             | This is true for every disease. If possible it's always
             | smart not to inject yourself with stuff.
             | 
             | They just can't say it because then everybody would try and
             | be the last person to get the shot, because the last one
             | gets to skip the shot!
        
               | mustacheemperor wrote:
               | >This is true for every disease. If possible it's always
               | smart not to inject yourself with stuff.
               | 
               | Maybe in a vacuum where everyone else around you is
               | guaranteed to get the shot, but based on what I saw from
               | friends and family who contracted COVID, what I've read
               | about its long term effects, and the ongoing uptake of
               | the vaccine I would not say the science inclines me to
               | take my chances without immunity.
        
             | [deleted]
        
       | rogers18445 wrote:
       | The doses of mRNA they are giving are probably too high, but due
       | to bureaucracy and liability no one is going to go out on a limb
       | and recommend lowering them - since this isn't based on the
       | trials and risks lowering immunity.
       | 
       | The obvious hypothesis is that some mRNA escapes the
       | intramuscular spaces and goes into the blood where it then makes
       | it into the heart and "helpfully" teaches heart cells how to make
       | spike protein, agitating the immune system to the heart. Note
       | that a vaccine is a bolus dose of spike protein, you are unlikely
       | to get a viral load from the actual virus to equal it - for a
       | young person perhaps not even in the course of the progression of
       | the illness.
       | 
       | If I get my second dose at all it won't be mRNA.
        
       | splithalf wrote:
       | Hope they controlled for vaping.
        
       | drummer wrote:
       | One has to be absolutely stupid to get poisoned with this crap to
       | 'protect' against what is essentially a flu.
        
       | UncleOxidant wrote:
       | Seems like maybe we should be recommending the J&J vaccine for
       | men under about 35 and the mRNA vaccines for women in that age
       | group.
        
       | notjes wrote:
       | So if booster shots are required, will we go through this ordeal
       | like every 12 month until what?
        
       | skwb wrote:
       | "cardiac MRI which is not always widely available". This is
       | mainly because the views of the heart are super hard to get
       | (exams are done mostly at specialized centers like Stanford)!
       | 
       | I actually ended up doing my PhD on automating the cardiac view
       | planes using deep learning.
        
       | tediousdemise wrote:
       | I got J&J even after the negative coverage. It uses the same
       | delivery method (a modified adenovirus) as the vaccine used in
       | China, which has already been tested on billions of people. I was
       | skeptical about the mRNA mechanism of action from the start.
       | 
       | I wonder how much our lifespans will be reduced by these
       | vaccines?
        
         | ailun wrote:
         | Which Chinese vaccine are you talking about? The two common
         | ones are Sinovac and Sinopharm; neither uses a modified
         | adenovirus. Also, neither of them have been taken by billions
         | of people.
        
       | arriu wrote:
       | Has anyone looked at whether the mental stress or anxiety induced
       | by putting someone through the process of getting the shot could
       | be maybe be a reason for triggering this? Not the vaccine itself,
       | but the whole routine of line up, answer questions about
       | allergies and other risk factors, then waiting to get the shot,
       | then having to sit there waiting for symptoms to show up... Not
       | to mention people don't like needles either.
       | 
       | I can imagine the heart rate during this ordeal is way higher
       | than normal and could trigger inflammation.
       | 
       | Not saying that the science here is invalid, just actually
       | curious to know how this gets ruled out.
        
         | arriu wrote:
         | What's up with the down votes...
         | 
         | It is a legitimate question. People get heart inflammation from
         | things like court visits.
         | 
         | If you know something then please share.
        
           | version_five wrote:
           | I didn't vote on your post, but I did read it earlier and
           | found it a bit silly. "White coat" syndrome- getting nervous
           | going to the doctor or for medical things, is definitely
           | real. I have it too. I always have a hard time getting my
           | blood pressure checked because I get so involuntarily
           | aggravated by the whole thing. And there are definitely
           | people afraid of needles. But (nearly) everyone has various
           | vaccinations during life, and it feels implausible that
           | you've identified some special new condition people are
           | getting (that in this case was already expected and is just
           | higher) that is specific to these vaccine based on stress
           | instead of the known rare response of the body.
        
             | arriu wrote:
             | I don't think it's enough to say people get vaccinated and
             | we didn't see this in the past. This is quite different.
             | Many people are afraid of _this_ vaccine more than others
             | in the past. I 've had countless arguments with family
             | trying to convince them it's okay. Their arguments are A)
             | it's mRNA, which is new... And B) they argue it was rushed.
             | 
             | I can't help but think about how someone with that mental
             | state would feel while in the waiting room.
        
         | chippy wrote:
         | The placebo / nocebo effect is real. If people think they will
         | feel good after taking something many of them will do and if
         | people think they might get sick taking something, then many of
         | them will do.
        
       | jb775 wrote:
       | The crazy thing about this is even if 75% of people who got the
       | vaccine dropped dead tomorrow, the other 25% would still be
       | _convinced_ it had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccine.
        
       | Flatcircle wrote:
       | May wife got severe joint pain like arthritis across both arms
       | and in other parts of her body after the Pfizer vax. She's
       | getting several tests done and has been doing physical therapy.
       | It was several months ago and it doesn't seem to be getting
       | better.
       | 
       | Her PT said she's been seeing lots of these.
       | 
       | She never had covid. I hope she gets better, it's been really
       | difficult.
        
         | dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote:
         | Have her get blood work for various inflammation and fatigue
         | markers like TSH/FT4/FT3, CBCs, Iron, TIBC, Serum Ferritin,
         | VitD, IL-6, (etc) for a sanity check.
         | 
         | Some of it can simply be stress/anxiety which - if not managed
         | - accumulates as whatever condition emotionally feels like it
         | is "not resolving" and produces similar symptoms. If everything
         | checks out, stuff like Omega3s, VitD, Glucosamine, Chondroitin
         | and a good 3-4 week vacation to unwind are all greatly
         | associated with reducing chronic inflammation.
         | 
         | I think the challenge we're all facing is Dr's are so
         | overwhelmed with all these "inflammatory"-type conditions where
         | some stuff can slip under the radar but they're all inclined to
         | blame it on anxiety/depression. COVID has been a sneaky fucker
         | wrt asymptomatic infections.
         | 
         | The best thing you can do is take as many stressors off the
         | plate and give it 6-9 months. Better 6-9 months off than a
         | lifetime of wading thru chronic issues.
        
         | Offpics wrote:
         | 8 months ago I developed severe pain, burning and stiffness in
         | hands. Then it went to the legs and finnaly to the whole body.
         | It got to a point where I was bedridden and couldnt eat on my
         | own. All of my energy was put into seeing doctors and doing
         | labs tests wich all turned out negative. I was doing PT and
         | pain killers but they were innefective. Finally, I got a
         | meeting with a rheumatologist that said its fibromyalgia. There
         | are no lab tests to prove fibro diagnosis so Im still not sure
         | about this and I suspect it may be a covid sideffect. Luckily
         | fluoxetin helped me to be back in life, overtime it modify
         | brain to reduce the threshold pain in a soft tissue. Covid
         | damages nerve cells in the soft tissue (thats why people lose
         | smell or even has body pains) so the dots are connecting. I
         | hope your wife will get better, I know how hard it is for a
         | whole family. Normally Im a lurker but who knows, maybe this
         | reply will help with your situation.
        
       | chronolitus wrote:
       | I definitely had this: got the first shot and felt confident,
       | cocksure that I would have no symptoms at all being healthy and
       | young. Woke up during the night ~8 hours after the first shot
       | feeling a little out of breath, with strong and almost painful
       | heartbeats. I chalked it up to being stressed, but found it
       | strange as I had zero reasons to be stressed that particular
       | week. I connected the dots the next day when I still had this
       | feeling, and talked to a doctor in the family who said it was
       | probably heart inflammation, and actually not that uncommon after
       | the vaccine or covid infection.
       | 
       | I'm still glad I got vaccinated, but given that heart disease is
       | the #1 cause of death worldwide, I'm surprised the ramifications
       | of heart inflammation aren't taken more seriously (if the heart
       | was permanently damaged in a small way, I'd expect it to manifest
       | many years later).
        
       | AndrewBissell wrote:
       | The response to this, of course, will be "well the risks of the
       | virus are still higher than those of the vaccine so you should
       | still get it," but I think that misses an important point here.
       | In the absence of long-term safety data on these vaccines, we
       | have engaged in _a priori_ deduction instead:  "there's no known
       | mechanism by which mRNA could cause any complications, so it
       | should be fine." The appearance of any significantly higher than
       | expected rate of complications potentially calls that reasoning
       | into question.
        
         | thenaturalist wrote:
         | I suggest your interpretation of such reasoning is
         | questionable? I would posit any serious medical and or
         | regulatory body is fully aware that an absolute statement like
         | "no known mechanism" resulting in complications isn't worth
         | much in the face of highly complex and sometimes still little
         | understood mammal bio-chemistry?
         | 
         | What can be asserted with confidence though, is that in the
         | presence of vaccines, severe effects of a infectious disease
         | like COVID are significantly reduced - to the great benefit of
         | the health system and society overall - and that, due to the
         | quite different biological responses to vaccine vs. actual
         | infection, severe effects in general are reduced massively. See
         | lame-robot-hoax's comments.
         | 
         | Nothing in life and certainly with regards to COVID is entirely
         | risk free.
        
           | briefcomment wrote:
           | > "to the great benefit of the health system and society
           | overall"
           | 
           | I don't think we can say anything about what the net effect
           | will be, seeing as the mRNA vaccines are novel in significant
           | ways.
        
       | Aaronstotle wrote:
       | After reading various comments here, I think I might have
       | experienced this after my first dose (Moderna). Noticed some
       | slight chest pain the day after during my ride and my heart rate
       | was about 10bpm higher than normal.
       | 
       | Never had any noticeable symptoms after, please take this with a
       | grain of salt because I do cycle a lot (~2-400 miles a month) and
       | I'm not representative of the general population.
        
       | antattack wrote:
       | I think that many people who did not have heart issues before
       | don't know what to look for or how it feels.
       | 
       | Personally, I did not know I had palpitations until I googled it
       | later. Similarly, I suspect, that some kids/young adults may have
       | had symptoms but don't report.
        
         | habibur wrote:
         | That can be covered by double blind tests.
        
         | majormajor wrote:
         | This would be reflected in the "expected rate" data that we
         | compare against, though, right? Many people who naturally have
         | an episode wouldn't ever see a doctor...
        
       | licnep wrote:
       | Pretty sure i had this after my second dose of moderna. On the
       | day of my second dose I had a very unique piercing heart pain i
       | never experienced before, thought i was gonna die. Had some
       | arrhythmia/palpitations as well, but didn't go to the doctor or
       | report it, I'm sure many more people experienced this without
       | reporting it, just hope it doesn't cause permanent damage. (31,
       | male)
        
       | Kognito wrote:
       | Very interesting given one of the lesser known complications of
       | covid can be myocarditis in otherwise healthy individuals with
       | few or no other covid symptoms.
       | 
       | In fact, it's likely the incidence of covid-induced myocarditis
       | is vastly underreported given it often shows no symptoms and can
       | only reasonably be diagnosed with a cardiac MRI which is not
       | always widely available or advised for less-serious heart
       | conditions.
       | 
       | I was diagnosed with myocarditis last year and despite a negative
       | PCR test around the onset of symptoms (light-headedness, heart
       | palpitations, fatigue) was strongly suspected to have contracted
       | covid.
       | 
       | I was lucky enough to get my first dose of the moderna vaccine a
       | few months back and beside a few days of increased heart
       | palpitations I've had no trouble as far as I'm aware, does make
       | me wonder about getting that second dose though.
        
         | newsclues wrote:
         | The spike protein causes cellular damage, doesn't matter if it
         | comes from the vaccine or virus
        
           | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
           | Yes, but the route in which a vaccination takes place (IM
           | injection into deltoid) should mean that much much less of
           | the spike protein ends up in the heart and lungs vs a natural
           | infection. As well, the overall amount of spike protein in
           | the body will be less.
           | 
           | https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/05/04/sp.
           | ..
           | 
           | "Consider what happens when you're infected by the actual
           | coronavirus. We know now that the huge majority of such
           | infections are spread by inhalation of virus-laden droplets
           | from other infected people, so the route of administration is
           | via the nose and/or lungs, and the cells lining your airway
           | are thus the first ones to get infected. The viral infection
           | process leads at the end to lysis of the the host cell and
           | subsequent dumping of a load of new viral particles - and
           | these get dumped into the cellular neighborhood and into the
           | bloodstream. They then have a clear shot at the endothelial
           | cells lining the airway vasculature, which are the very focus
           | of these two new papers.
           | 
           | Compare this, though, to what happens in vaccination. The
           | injection is intramuscular, not into the bloodstream. That's
           | why a muscle like the deltoid is preferred, because it's a
           | good target of thicker muscle tissue without any easily hit
           | veins or arteries at the site of injection. The big surface
           | vein in that region is the cephalic vein, and it's down along
           | where the deltoid and pectoral muscles meet, not high up in
           | the shoulder. In earlier animal model studies of mRNA
           | vaccines, such administration was clearly preferred over a
           | straight i.v. injection; the effects were much stronger. So
           | the muscle cells around the injection are hit by the vaccine
           | (whether mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles or adenovirus
           | vectors) while a good portion of the remaining dose is in the
           | intercellular fluid and thus drains through the lymphatic
           | system, not the bloodstream. That's what you want, since the
           | lymph nodes are a major site of immune response. The draining
           | lymph nodes for the deltoid are going to be the
           | deltoid/pectoral ones where those two muscles meet, and the
           | larger axillary lymph nodes down in the armpit on that side."
        
             | motohagiography wrote:
             | Does that imply that the difference in hitting a vein with
             | the injection vs. staying intramuscular would be where in
             | the body the protein travels to and causes an immune
             | response?
             | 
             | Nothing is ever that simple, but of cases with effects
             | consistent with the protein being in the blood stream with
             | consequences to the heart and brain, if that were a factor,
             | it would be both testable and avoidable, and provide the
             | explanation people would need to choose to get the shot. If
             | the odds of accidentally hitting a vein and the bloodstream
             | consequences as described lined up, it could move the issue
             | forward.
             | 
             | I have zero expertise in this area, my interest in asking
             | is what would make a more compelling case for getting more
             | people immune, and having a straightforward explanation for
             | the causes of the prior reports of harm would go a long way
             | toward that goal.
             | 
             | Put another way: would injecting directly into an artery or
             | vein have risks that the intramuscular jab would not - and
             | do those risks resemble the anecdotal reports of myo,
             | clots, and deaths?
        
               | T-A wrote:
               | It's been hypothesized that AstraZeneca's vaccine is more
               | likely to cause clots when accidentally injected
               | intravenously:
               | 
               | https://www.sortiraparis.com/news/coronavirus/articles/24
               | 662...
        
               | rolph wrote:
               | expect immediate and catastrophic thromboembolism upon IV
               | administration of any current covid vaccine none of them
               | are formulated for IV administration
               | 
               | https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/Community_Resou
               | rce...
        
             | osipov wrote:
             | >The injection is intramuscular, not into the bloodstream.
             | 
             | Recent research (per No Agenda shownotes) showed that
             | unlike traditional vaccines, Moderna mRNA spread through
             | the bloodstream producing and distributing spike protein in
             | the entire body.
        
               | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
               | What do you mean by "spread through the bloodstream"?
               | 
               | Of course even in an IM injection, some will end up in
               | the blood stream. The better question is the overall
               | amount that stays within the deltoid vs that that travels
               | elsewhere, and how the compares to natural infection. How
               | does the virus deposit itself around the body vs. how
               | does the spike protein via vaccination deposit itself
               | around the body. As well, with the way the vaccine works,
               | once it hits a cell, that cell will express the spike
               | protein to the surface and that's it, instead of
               | contributing to further viral spread in the same region.
        
             | newsclues wrote:
             | "Should"
             | 
             | Has it been tested?
        
               | VoiceOfWisdom wrote:
               | Its in testing right now.
        
               | newsclues wrote:
               | I'm listening to the livestream on Bret Weinstein's
               | channel and they are discussing data that states the
               | opposite including data that shows a concentration in the
               | ovaries.
        
               | lootsauce wrote:
               | is this it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn_b4NRTB6k
        
               | dekken_ wrote:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NNTVJzqtY I would guess
        
               | 0-_-0 wrote:
               | This is the one
        
               | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
               | I'd be interested to see a source. I know of rat models
               | that show a very small accumulation in ovaries, but these
               | rats were afaik given doses in the range of 300x-1000x
               | that of a human. And the accumulation in the ovaries or
               | other regions was still incredibly small, despite the
               | dosage given.
        
               | 0-_-0 wrote:
               | I'm listening to the same podcast. The source was Pfizer
               | data obtained via Byram Bridle FOIA request, it was a
               | Japanese study I think.
               | 
               | edit: this one: https://files.catbox.moe/0vwcmj.pdf
               | 
               | Here's the data in a plot:
               | 
               | https://trialsitenews.com/wp-
               | content/uploads/2021/06/Ovaries...
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | SamBam wrote:
             | > As well, the overall amount of spike protein in the body
             | will be less.
             | 
             | Less that an acute infection, probably.
             | 
             | Less than a mild asymptomatic infection? Do we know that?
             | My understanding was that they packed quite a lot of mRNA
             | into the shot in order to ensure a response.
        
               | officialjunk wrote:
               | infection is a spectrum, sure, but the public usage of
               | the word "asymptomatic" does not include cardiovascular
               | side effects, that can show up some weeks/months later.
               | 
               | we are observing "asymptomatic" infections followed by
               | cardiovascular problems for some. is it really
               | asymptomatic in those cases?
        
         | EMM_386 wrote:
         | The human heart has a lot of ACE2 receptors, which is what
         | Covid binds to.
         | 
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7239191/
         | 
         | I wonder if you can get myocarditits both from exposure and the
         | vaccine. Covid is in your heart tissue, triggering an immune
         | response. When you get the vaccine, your immune system is going
         | to ramp up even further to deal with this Covid in your heart.
         | This would only affect people who had prior Covid exposure it
         | would seem.
        
           | Mountain_Skies wrote:
           | Wonder if this will lead to an increase in pericarditis over
           | the next couple of years. I had pericarditis when I was a
           | teen. The explanation from the cardiologist, which probably
           | was dumbed down for me, was that sometimes a foreign body
           | like bacteria or a virus gets hidden in the lining of the
           | heart and when it later gets exposed to the immune system, it
           | causes the pericardium to get enflamed, which squeezes the
           | heart. How long do spike proteins (SARS-CoV-2 or vaccine
           | created) hang out if they make it to the heart? We probably
           | don't know yet.
        
             | EMM_386 wrote:
             | > How long do spike proteins (SARS-CoV-2 or vaccine
             | created) hang out if they make it to the heart?
             | 
             | As far as I understand it, the vaccine doesn't work like
             | this. It tells your immune system "hey this is what a SARS-
             | CoV-2 spike protein looks like, attack it if you see it".
             | 
             | So the vaccine wouldn't cause the heart damage, the vaccine
             | does (intentionally) ramp up your immune system to learn
             | about this new threat, which it will then attack. It
             | doesn't bind to ACE2, it teaches your immune system to look
             | for bad things that can.
             | 
             | If there is still Covid in your heart due to prior
             | exposure, your immune system is going to go there to
             | assist. This would cause inflammation, but intentionally.
             | As you noted, this immune system response is correct
             | behavior.
             | 
             | So that's a long way of saying the inflammation is from the
             | virus, not the vaccine. That's why I was thinking this may
             | only occur in vaccinated individuals who had prior exposure
             | to Covid.
        
               | sjg007 wrote:
               | The covid spike protein binds ace2 so the immune response
               | to bind the spike could bind ace2 as well. Normally this
               | is mitigated by a self selection filter but it is not out
               | of the question that you could develop an autoimmune
               | response.
        
               | loa_in_ wrote:
               | There are two variants of the vaccine:
               | 
               | One is mRNA (?) variant that gets into your cells and
               | makes them produce just the spike protein. This lets your
               | immune system find this protein out and make antibodies.
               | 
               | The other contains instead a partially destroyed viruses
               | which trains the immune system directly on all their
               | parts - the shell, the spikes, etc.
               | 
               | I don't remember which company makes which kind but both
               | are in production.
        
               | abracadaniel wrote:
               | The mRNA vaccines don't produce the entire spike protein,
               | just a portion of it in order to target the antibodies
               | towards that specific portion of the spike.
        
               | AareyBaba wrote:
               | Your insights are not entirely correct. There are more
               | than two types of covid vaccines.
               | 
               | Coronavirus Vaccines - An Introduction by JAMA is a good
               | starting point.
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMc3vL_MIeo
               | 
               | COVID-19 Vaccines goes into greater detail.
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Idb_lCU4o
        
           | drcross wrote:
           | >which is what Covid binds to.
           | 
           | You mean the SARS-2 spike protein binds to the ACE receptors.
           | mRNA vaccines create the spike protein so it's going to work
           | in exactly the same way as natural infection. Recent research
           | from Japan is showing that the spike protein from vaccination
           | is not staying at the injection site it can get into the
           | blood stream (and causes blood clots as are widely reported),
           | crossing the blood brain barrier and affecting the heart. As
           | a healthy 30 year old I would prefer to take my risk with
           | covid than take these vaccines. I've done enough research to
           | know what I'm talking about and the smartest people I know
           | have reached the same conclusion.
        
             | type0 wrote:
             | > Recent research from Japan is showing that the spike
             | protein from vaccination is not staying at the injection
             | site it can get into the blood stream (and causes blood
             | clots as are widely reported), crossing the blood brain
             | barrier and affecting the heart.
             | 
             | Please dr Cross, where's the link to these studies?
        
             | ancientorange wrote:
             | >As a healthy 30 year old I would prefer to take my risk
             | with covid than take these vaccines.
             | 
             | As an exhausted 34 year old who spent the last year field-
             | monitoring vaccine trials, I would love to see the sources
             | that informed your position.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | zarq wrote:
               | > spent the last year field-monitoring vaccine trials
               | 
               | As an adult that was vaccinated, thank you for doing your
               | part to get us all here.
        
             | munificent wrote:
             | _> As a healthy 30 year old I would prefer to take my risk
             | with covid than take these vaccines._
             | 
             | Unfortunate that you're also unilaterally forcing everyone
             | you come into contact with to take that same risk if you
             | are infected without realizing it.
        
               | trhway wrote:
               | > everyone you come into contact with to take that same
               | risk
               | 
               | how come so if those "everyone" got vaccinated? I mean
               | all the risk groups who has clearly higher risk from
               | covid than vaccine should definitely go for vaccine. The
               | rest - personal choice of risk. And as a healthy 49 years
               | old, i'm taking my chance with covid and have no plans
               | for vaccination (i was always laughing at anti-vaxxers,
               | yet seeing all misinformation and propaganda (the smell
               | of USSR strength propaganda is just overwhelming) around
               | covid i think i'll pass this one)
        
               | nrb wrote:
               | "everyone" currently excludes a large number of people
               | who would otherwise like to be immunized for a variety of
               | reasons (age, medical risks), and vaccines are not 100%
               | effective
        
             | dkarras wrote:
             | That... doesn't make sense. You WILL get exposed to this
             | virus. Worst case, the virus will be able to do the same
             | _and more_ without any prior training for your immune
             | system. If you said  "I'll try not to get covid" I'd say
             | "Impossible but godspeed" at least your logic would be
             | sound.
        
               | thenaturalist wrote:
               | Absolutely this. What are your "smartest" friends saying
               | about the billions of dollars invested and spent by other
               | really smart individuals in developing these vaccines in
               | the first place? I bet world class biologists and
               | investors aren't doing it for the fun.
               | 
               | PS: If anyone is curious about the "real thing", I'd
               | highly recommend you look up hospital documentaries on
               | COVID IC units. There is one - unfortunately German only
               | - called "Charite intensiv" which quite drastically
               | showcases the extent of what you have to deal with when
               | contracting COVID. Let me tell you it's quite a bit more
               | than myocarditis.
        
             | zacharyvoase wrote:
             | I got covid last year, and this year got vaccinated, and if
             | I repeated the scenario 1 million times I'd take the
             | vaccine over the infection 1 million times.
        
             | eganist wrote:
             | > I've done enough research to know what I'm talking about
             | 
             | The standard practice is for those making the assertion to
             | provide their references or data. Since you've done the
             | research, can you please link any published and peer
             | reviewed research establishing that the health risks from
             | the vaccine are within two orders of magnitude of the
             | health risks from the virus? Including morbidity,
             | mortality, etc.
             | 
             | > The smartest people I know have reached the same
             | conclusion.
             | 
             | Can you please reference them as well so I can read their
             | published content?
        
         | pcbro141 wrote:
         | I'm curious if you were prescribed any treatment for
         | myocarditis if you don't mind me asking?
        
           | Kognito wrote:
           | Questions are more than welcome :)
           | 
           | No treatment, just a follow up cardiac MRI after 3 months
           | which showed (thankfully) a resolution of inflammation and
           | normal heart function. Was prescribed low-dose beta blockers
           | if the palpitations bothered me too much though didn't end up
           | needing them.
           | 
           | As I understand it the typical approach is to wait and see
           | since the majority of cases resolve without treatment -
           | though I've noticed in the US it's more popular to prescribe
           | a low-dose cocktail of various heart meds. Not aware of any
           | clinical data on their effectiveness in mild cases.
        
         | salemh wrote:
         | >second dose There has been some discussion on that:
         | 
         | Delaying a Covid vaccine's second dose boosts immune response
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27156859
        
         | mrfusion wrote:
         | COVID induced myocarditis has been thoroughly disproven:
         | 
         | https://www.statnews.com/2021/05/14/setting-the-record-strai...
        
           | wozniacki wrote:
           | Anecdotal or not, there have been plenty of otherwise healthy
           | young people reporting everything from palpitations, chest
           | pain to arrhythmia
           | 
           | https://www.reddit.com/r/CovidVaccinated/search?q=myocarditi.
           | .. [1]
           | 
           | [1] /r/CovidVaccinated
           | 
           | https://www.reddit.com/r/CovidVaccinated/
        
           | nicoburns wrote:
           | Based on my personal experience, I'm pretty skeptical of
           | this. I'm 28, healthy (or was previously), and have never
           | previously had any issues with my heart. Got covid last April
           | which came with quite sharp heart pain which seemed to match
           | up very well to descriptions of myocarditis on and off for
           | about 6 months. And I'm only just now getting to the point
           | now where a raised heart beat isn't painful.
           | 
           | You might say it's anecdotal, but _something_ had to cause
           | that.
        
             | bena wrote:
             | Never previously had any issues with your heart... that you
             | were aware of.
             | 
             | Heart issues can go unnoticed until the day you drop dead.
        
             | Kognito wrote:
             | If you're in a position to do so, I'd strongly recommend
             | you get checked out if you're having any kind of chest pain
             | as your heart rate rises.
             | 
             | I lost count of how many times I was told "you're too young
             | to have any heart issues" before eventually being diagnosed
             | with myo. FWIW I'm younger than you and though mild, my
             | symptoms seem to have taken 9 months to mostly resolve.
        
               | nonbirithm wrote:
               | I'm also young and have had mild to moderate chest pain
               | (stabbing) that comes in bursts and can last hours. This
               | was after what I thought was a cardiac event in February
               | of 2019, a year before the pandemic, when I suddenly
               | started feeling lightheaded and seeing stars, but the EMS
               | said nothing was wrong. Before that moment I never had
               | any chest pain, and it still comes back to this day
               | occasionally. I must have had an ECG a dozen times since
               | then. I ordered a barrage of tests up to a heart
               | ultrasound and a stress test, and nothing came of it all.
               | I was frequently told it was unlikely anything was wrong
               | because of my age.
               | 
               | It was a miserable period of my life, not knowing if I
               | was going to survive to the next day. The pain is always
               | on the left side of my chest and has fluctuated around
               | various regions of it. Recently it became worse again
               | after taking Adderall, which raised my heart rate, so I
               | still suspect something is wrong with my heart, but it
               | seems that after a year of stressful hospital visits and
               | no definitive answers, I've exhausted everything that
               | would have given me a diagnosis at this point.
        
           | Kognito wrote:
           | Thanks for the article, an interesting read for sure. It's
           | nice to see there's been plenty of follow-up study on this.
           | 
           | Respectfully, you're wrong to say "thoroughly disproven".
           | Even the article ends with the suggestion that it's a side-
           | effect of covid, albeit a rare one.
           | 
           | The article's position is more that it was overblown to worry
           | about stopping young athletes from competing for fear of myo
           | being a common side-effect as opposed to the ~1% rate the
           | studies have since shown.
        
             | eckesicle wrote:
             | My wife died from myocarditis 2 months ago. The only thing
             | she tested positive for was COVID.
             | 
             | The coroner's report however, was quite clear that COVID
             | did not cause her death or the myocarditis and that there
             | has been no such reported case anywhere in the world.
             | 
             | If anyone has information to dispute that I would be very
             | interested to see it. Thanks
        
               | timr wrote:
               | Myocarditis is unfortunately very common. There are many
               | causes, including a panoply of viruses for which tests
               | may not exist. That is _probably_ why the coroner 's
               | report said what it did.
               | 
               | I'm sorry for your loss.
        
               | Kognito wrote:
               | I'm so sorry for your loss, myo is a terrible illness and
               | so poorly understood by the medical community - even
               | cardiologists seem to have a hard time recognising it.
               | 
               | There's a good deal of info available in medical journals
               | relating to covid and myo. I'm no doctor though I've
               | researched it well since being diagnosed.
        
               | thenaturalist wrote:
               | I am sorry for your loss. May her memory be a blessing.
        
               | myfavoritedog wrote:
               | I wonder how many other coroners ruled a case of
               | myocarditis to not have been caused by a recent COVID
               | infection because other coroners had not been willing to
               | make the association either?
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | bitwize wrote:
           | The child of a friend of my girlfriend developed COVID
           | myocarditis. He'll have heart problems for the rest of his
           | life now.
           | 
           | He's a child.
           | 
           | This is why nothing less than total lockdown will do, even
           | for a disease with a 99.97% survival rate -- at what cost
           | comes survival?
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | gulli1010 wrote:
           | COVID is still an unfolding disaster. I doubt that anybody
           | really understands completely what it does.
        
             | gulli1010 wrote:
             | I have also been experiencing irregular heart beat and
             | palpitations. Quite possible that I had COVID at some
             | point.
        
               | devb wrote:
               | Have you been exercising less since lockdowns started?
        
               | gulli1010 wrote:
               | I never really exercised much. But heart palpitations are
               | something new, been noticing it for the last few months.
        
               | rob74 wrote:
               | I can share a story about heart palpitations: I started
               | having them in ~2008 without any previous infection (that
               | I know of). Interestingly enough, they were appearing
               | when my heart rate was going down - most noticeably while
               | I was lying in bed trying to sleep, which isn't easy if
               | your heart starts "missing some beats" out of the blue!
               | Went to various doctors, they couldn't find anything
               | wrong with my heart, but couldn't find anything that
               | could help me get rid of the palpitations either. Then,
               | in 2010, I got chickenpox, which at age 36 is a pretty
               | big deal, with high fever, blisters all over the body
               | etc. That took two weeks, and after that my palpitations
               | were gone, and haven't returned since (knock on wood,
               | fingers crossed etc.). So I can only assume that I had
               | some form of myocarditis and the high fever got rid of
               | that too?! No idea...
        
         | throwaway5752 wrote:
         | I would "take your chances" (quotes because it's both rare and
         | temporary according to the linked article) with the vaccine
         | rather than risk infection with covid:
         | https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-hidden-long-term-cog...
        
           | oogabooga123 wrote:
           | Very interesting! But I would rather just get infected. To
           | each their own, I'm sure we can agree!
        
             | moron4hire wrote:
             | Natural infection won't provide as long lasting of immunity
             | compared to the mRNA vaccines. And if the vaccine is going
             | to inflame your heart, I seriously doubt it's going to be
             | anything but far worse from the natural infection.
        
               | andai wrote:
               | Can someone explain why this the mRNA vaccine (which
               | tells your body to produce spike protein and thus mimic
               | the virus) produces long-lasting immunity but the actual
               | virus which is being mimicked does not do that?
        
               | jobu wrote:
               | There was a piece about this on NPR (I think earlier this
               | week, but I can't find it right now).
               | 
               | It sounded like they're making some assumptions because
               | the mRNA vaccine causes most people to produce a higher
               | level of antibodies for a longer period of time vs the
               | real virus. However, antibodies are not the only part of
               | immune system, so it's possible that other parts of the
               | immune system may still be effective.
               | 
               | The real answer is we don't know that yet conclusively,
               | but we do know the vaccine is effective, so until we have
               | a better understanding it's a good idea to be vaccinated
               | regardless (especially if you have any risk factors).
        
               | shmel wrote:
               | How do you know this? mRNA vaccines are literally so new
               | we don't know what will be in 2 years from now. They were
               | never used in humans.
               | 
               | In comparison SARS survivors from 2003 still have
               | immunity (I believe the same is with MERS).
        
               | throwaway5752 wrote:
               | That isn't quite true. Since sars-covid-2 is new, it
               | follows of course the specific vaccine is new. The
               | RNA/mRNA approach goes back 30 years to HIV research, and
               | the current vaccine has many years of research (directly
               | from SARS-1 and MERS, and possible mitigations). A lot is
               | known about them, regardless of widespread use. We will
               | all undoubtedly learn more.
               | 
               | I'm not replying directly to you, but the duration of the
               | immunity isn't terribly important past a certain point.
               | The vaccine is much, much safer than infection. It
               | prevents overwhelming of medical resources, and can
               | reduce the community transmission levels to an extent
               | that it can end a pandemic. Those are the primary
               | benefits, not better or worse immune memory. That would
               | just be a fringe benefit if it were the case.
        
             | lnwlebjel wrote:
             | FYI you're trading a known risk (COVID infection,
             | complications, possibly lasting ones, eg. [1]) for a
             | perhaps hypothetical, certainly very unlikely, one.
             | 
             | [1] https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/140261419319539302
             | 9/pho...
        
               | oogabooga123 wrote:
               | Thanks for the info! This doesn't change my mind but I
               | appreciate it anyway, and perhaps it will change the mind
               | of some reader who was on the fence.
        
           | Kognito wrote:
           | Yeah, somewhat regret my closing comment there. I most likely
           | _will_ take my chances of a second dose over being infected.
        
             | throwaway5752 wrote:
             | Please do, and be well. Thank you for replying with that.
        
       | Giorgi wrote:
       | Damn it, I already have heart problems and still in queue for
       | mRNA thinking it was safer than AstraZeneca clots risk. Guess
       | not. Crap.
        
         | Klonoar wrote:
         | FWIW, I also have a heart condition, and experienced no issues.
         | 
         | Obviously I can't give you medical advice, but figure it's
         | worth noting that it's not a guaranteed experience. ;P
        
         | majormajor wrote:
         | The article mentions some hospitalizations but not any deaths,
         | so it still definitely seems safer.
        
       | DennisP wrote:
       | It'd be nice if they mentioned how many cases there were,
       | compared to number of shots.
        
         | meibo wrote:
         | They do, in this exact article. 283 cases were noted in the
         | VAERS database, there are about 130 million fully vaccinated
         | people in the US.
         | 
         | I assume they don't track healthy people in the database of
         | adverse vaccination reactions.
        
           | DennisP wrote:
           | So they do. I'm pretty sure they added that after I read it.
        
         | handrous wrote:
         | The whole article could use a lot more context, which has been
         | typical of COVID reporting. For one thing: is heart
         | inflammation a rare side-effect for vaccines and/or immune
         | responses generally? If not, to what degree (if any) does this
         | exceed rates we see for other vaccines?
         | 
         | That should be second-paragraph-of-article sorts of
         | information.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | sdenton4 wrote:
           | Exactly this.
           | 
           | I'm curious how much we're seeing effects that are present
           | but just haven't been measured previously, because of the
           | size of the newly-vaccinated population.
           | 
           | The second dose is obviously very stressful on the body -
           | people are often down for a couple days dealing with the
           | reaction - so it seems unsurprising that there's /some/ kind
           | of measurable secondary effect. Stress is known to correlate
           | with heart attack.
        
         | sbierwagen wrote:
         | They link to the CDC slide deck. Slide 14:
         | https://www.fda.gov/media/150054/download
         | 
         | 488 total reports from Pfizer-BioNTech, 301 reports from
         | Moderna.
         | 
         | Slide 18 shows proportions. 12,169,692 doses administered.
         | Expected number (base rate) of Myocarditis/pericarditis cases
         | in persons under 25, 10 to 103. Cases observed: 277. So it
         | roughly quadrupled the base rate. Which brings the adverse
         | reaction rate up to... 0.000276%
        
           | Fomite wrote:
           | The debate between presenting absolute vs. relative rates is
           | a really interesting one in epidemiology, for the record,
           | with roots spanning everything from "absolute risk regression
           | models are actually kind of tricky" to the early arguments
           | about smoking and lung cancer, casual criteria, and R.A.
           | Fisher being on the wrong side of history.
        
           | amluto wrote:
           | This only requires that a person with myocarditis be 3-4x as
           | likely to notice it after a COVID vaccine than without a
           | COVID vaccine. That seems consistent with a real effect but
           | also consistent with no vaccine effect at all.
        
         | dfsegoat wrote:
         | It's a postmarketing surveillance system [1]. Not a controlled
         | trial, so the true exposure vs. reported cases isn't known for
         | these data from VAERS.
         | 
         | > "There were 283 observed cases of heart inflammation after
         | the second vaccine dose in those aged 16 to 24 in the VAERS
         | data. That compares with expectations of 10-to-102 cases for
         | that age range based on U.S. population background incidence
         | rates, the CDC said."
         | 
         | They use Observed vs. Expected cases in order to calculate e.g.
         | a reporting odds ratio [2], which can loosely guide you in
         | finding events which occur disproportionately.
         | 
         | 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmarketing_surveillance
         | 
         | 2. https://allaboutpharmacovigilance.org/43-reporting-odds-
         | rati...
        
         | mario_lopez wrote:
         | Agreed. Context matters here.
         | 
         | I'd hate for this to get blown out of proportion like the blood
         | clot issue did, causing massive confidence declines in places
         | all over, especially those struggling to roll out vaccines and
         | keep their COVID cases under control.
         | 
         | Obviously, if the numbers are alarming, we must react
         | accordingly.
        
           | dfsegoat wrote:
           | They are alarming based on the measure of Observed vs.
           | Expected cases.
           | 
           | Observed (O) cases in that age group: 283
           | 
           | Expected (E) cases in that age group: 10-102
           | 
           | So at least double the top of the confidence interval, for
           | expected.
        
             | shawabawa3 wrote:
             | but that's out of 13m doses, so ~200 out of 13m. I'm not
             | sure how that compares to the expected harm from catching
             | covid but I imagine the vaccine still ends up massively
             | favourable
        
               | nwellnhof wrote:
               | This depends a lot on the probability of contracting
               | Covid at all. Roughly speaking, if there's a 1% chance to
               | contract the disease, the vaccine has to be at least 100
               | times safer. As the chance to catch Covid decreases over
               | time, the risks associated with vaccines become more of a
               | problem.
        
               | heisenbit wrote:
               | > As the chance to catch Covid decreases over time, the
               | risks associated with vaccines become more of a problem.
               | 
               | This is a big assumption. It could also be that it
               | becomes part of the virus background infections we all
               | deal with except that it is high risk if you get it the
               | first time.
               | 
               | When looking that the risk of an non vaccinated
               | individual catching Covid today keep in mind that a lot
               | of people have been vaccinated and the incidence numbers
               | de-facto refer to incidences of the non vaccinated part
               | of the population which would justify a smaller
               | denominator than used (whole population).
        
               | sudosysgen wrote:
               | Without vaccines the risk of catching covid is of around
               | 70% at least.
        
               | HPsquared wrote:
               | Is that for an individual not taking the vaccine but
               | benefiting from herd immunity of others, or a person in a
               | while society without vaccines?
        
               | sudosysgen wrote:
               | For society in general.
               | 
               | That said, there is no guarantee that herd immunity will
               | ever be reached at least in the US. If herd immunity
               | isn't reached then it's basically guaranteed you'll get
               | it eventually as the disease becomes a "background
               | disease".
        
               | swader999 wrote:
               | Have to really consider if the 200 are but a fraction of
               | the actual though. I mean how many are going to be
               | reported?
        
               | fwip wrote:
               | I'd wager it's approximately the same fraction of
               | myocarditis cases that are reported in the unvaccinated
               | group. There may even be a bias toward over-reporting
               | myocarditis in the wake of a vaccine, as people are
               | primed to look for side effects.
        
               | dfsegoat wrote:
               | Per the article. The age group of concern "accounted for
               | less than 9% of doses administered."
               | 
               | Also, underreporting is a factor - not everyone knows
               | about VAERS, not everyone goes to the Dr. for chest pain
               | etc.
               | 
               | I agree it's favorable, but it's important to understand
               | the effects of any medicine on subgroups of a treatment
               | population.
        
             | fwip wrote:
             | Right, but you've got to look at the absolute rate, which
             | in this case is 283 out of 12 million, which is roughly 24
             | people per million.
             | 
             | You can look at the risk of what it's preventing (covid has
             | already killed ~1700 people per million in the US), or
             | compare to other activities and risk levels.
             | 
             | Relative risk comparisons between different activities are
             | often not useful. For example, the risk of shark-death at
             | the beach might look alarming when compared to my risk of
             | shark-death-at-home, but actually it's vanishingly
             | unlikely.
        
               | makomk wrote:
               | The trouble is that the people apparently at risk from
               | this are not the people at risk from Covid-19. The risk
               | to people between the ages of 12 and 24 from Covid is
               | really, really small. Especially towards the lower end of
               | that age range, most countries seem to be seeing low
               | single-digit per million deaths: https://www.thelancet.co
               | m/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4...
        
               | jlokier wrote:
               | The risk of _death_ from Covid-19 is low in that age
               | range.
               | 
               | But what about the risk of heart inflammation from
               | Covid-19 in that age group, possibly with no other Covid
               | symptoms?
        
               | robbiep wrote:
               | That's the right question to ask
        
       | redis_mlc wrote:
       | Women ofte report heart problems as nausea, differently than men,
       | who report it as pain.
       | 
       | So this side effect may be under-reported or misdiagnosed in
       | women, so not male-only.
        
         | AnimalMuppet wrote:
         | Hmm. A "hidden" or "silent" heart attack often shows up as
         | fatigue. This could be _far_ more prevalent than data
         | indicates.
         | 
         | Note that I'm not saying that it _is_ more prevalent. So far as
         | I know, there is no data to support my suspicion. And,
         | personally, I suspect that if some of that is heart trouble, it
         | 's the minority of cases of Covid (and Covid vaccine) fatigue.
         | But I note that the possibility exists that this could be
         | prevalent.
        
       | thatswrong0 wrote:
       | Anecdote: I had this reaction to the 2nd dose of the Pfizer
       | vaccine, saw a cardiologist and she mentioned that she's been
       | seeing this quite a bit after the second dose. Have had to lay
       | low for a month, but it seems like the symptoms are finally
       | passing.
        
         | Black101 wrote:
         | I wanted to avoid the second dose but ended up getting it
         | anyways... hope they don't rush vaccine approvals again...
         | might be good in the short run, but if issues come up, it might
         | be bad in the long run.
        
         | Klonoar wrote:
         | Interesting.
         | 
         | It's also anecdotal, but I have a existing heart condition and
         | experienced no such side-effects post-dose (on either dose
         | (Moderna)).
        
         | popotamonga wrote:
         | What kind of symptoms makes one go to a cardiologist? Just
         | curious
        
           | atom_arranger wrote:
           | I'm 27 and experienced a lot of chest pains and skipped
           | heartbeats earlier this year. One night I stood up quickly,
           | walked a bit then lost consciousness (low blood pressure),
           | hit my head on the way down. I had an ambulance to the ER
           | after that, they didn't find anything wrong during that
           | visit.
           | 
           | I was referred to a cardiologist, had a holter monitor, ECG,
           | and stress test. None of those turned up any issue.
           | 
           | Going by what I've read about this online I suspect I may
           | have had myocarditis from a case of COVID, but I think that
           | would only show up on an MRI, not the tests I got. Luckily
           | the palpitations and chest pain have mostly gone away over
           | the past couple months.
           | 
           | In relation to speculation about COVID and myocarditis cases
           | elsewhere on this page: I doubt my case will be reported
           | because the association between COVID and heart problems
           | didn't seem to be on the radar of any of the doctors I saw.
        
           | thatswrong0 wrote:
           | I went to the doctor because of general shortness of breath
           | all the time, heart rate spiking during normal activity like
           | standing up, palpitations out the wazoo, and general fatigue.
        
           | mannykannot wrote:
           | Arrhythmias are perhaps the most specific indicators that you
           | should see a cardiologist, but chest pain and/or shortage of
           | breath on mild exercise could well be caused by a heart
           | problem. These are some of the symptoms of myocarditis, among
           | other things.
        
         | elliekelly wrote:
         | If you don't mind sharing I'd be curious to hear how you knew
         | something was wrong? If I were a man in my teens or early 20s
         | (or even 30s!) I feel like I would chalk any chest pain up to
         | anxiety or heartburn before I ever even considered the
         | possibility of a heart situation. My understanding is
         | myocarditis is usually not a big deal but it does require
         | treatment and isn't something you should just "wait and see" if
         | it resolves on its own.
        
           | thatswrong0 wrote:
           | I went to the doctor because of general shortness of breath
           | all the time, heart rate spiking during normal activity like
           | standing up, palpitations out the wazoo, and general fatigue.
           | If I felt "sick" or fluish that'd be one thing.. this seemed
           | different.
        
           | psychlops wrote:
           | I had this as a side effect of covid last year. You are
           | correct, no medication was given and they won't actually do a
           | biopsy of your heart due to the risk so the will simply wait
           | and see.
           | 
           | It feels like a big deal. I had never had heart issues and it
           | felt like my whole system was unstable. Hard to describe
           | really. I don't know how serious it is, however. The
           | cardiologists just tested my heart, saw that there was no
           | blockage and the blood flow was strong and told me to rest.
           | 
           | edit to add: On the second dose of Pfizer, I felt a minor
           | version of this for about an hour in the middle of the night
           | after a morning shot. No other symptoms beyond a strong
           | immune response.
        
             | nicoburns wrote:
             | Good to hear this experience. I also had this as a side
             | effect of a covid infection last year (having never
             | previously had any heart issues). I've just had my first
             | Phizer dose, and this article had me questioning the wisdom
             | of getting the second dose. But I feel like an hour won't
             | do me much harm. It lasted for months with the actual
             | infection.
        
               | psychlops wrote:
               | I call the heart part the bonus round. And same, it took
               | me several months to get better.
        
         | digitaltrees wrote:
         | I had this after COVID in April last year right at the
         | beginning. I suspect it is an immune reaction to the virus not
         | the vaccine itself.
        
           | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
           | But the Pfizer vaccine doesn't contain any of the virus,
           | unless it's just the immune reaction to the spike protein
           | that causes the problem?
        
             | lame-robot-hoax wrote:
             | https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/05/04/s
             | p...
             | 
             | Derek Lowe has a post that discusses this.
             | 
             | In short from what I remember, the vaccine is administered
             | in the deltoid, so most of the spike proteins should remain
             | there. Some may travel throughout the body, but overall it
             | is much much less than a natural infection.
             | 
             | That's why I'm curious to compare myocarditis rates after
             | vaccination to those after infection, because from what we
             | know, natural infection should result in a higher rate of
             | myocarditis than vaccination.
        
             | nicoburns wrote:
             | > unless it's just the immune reaction to the spike protein
             | that causes the problem?
             | 
             | If the problem is inflammation then that seems entirely
             | plausible... I thought that an immune response was exactly
             | what inflammation is
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | But then it would be caused by untold number of things
               | and not marked out as special.
        
             | krrrh wrote:
             | The vaccine produces spike protein and some research
             | suggests that the spike protein itself is the source of
             | vascular system damage. There was a contention that the
             | vaccine spike protein is designed to stay on the surface of
             | infected cells and not freely circulate into the
             | bloodstream in large quantities but we also just don't know
             | for certain. It could even have to do with how the vaccine
             | is administered and whether it largely affects the lymph
             | system or a large quantity makes its way into the
             | bloodstream.
             | 
             | https://www.salk.edu/news-release/the-novel-coronavirus-
             | spik...
        
             | numpad0 wrote:
             | Maybe having immune system working hard somehow naturally
             | puts strain on cardiovascular systems?
        
               | jerf wrote:
               | A theory (far from proved, but certainly also nothing I'd
               | consider "disproved") is that the spike protein itself
               | may be dangerous, in which case injecting something into
               | yourself that causes your body to deliberately produce it
               | may not be an unmitigated good.
               | 
               | I don't think we have the data either way to be _sure_
               | the spike protein is completely harmless, though
               | obviously how dangerous it is is bounded by the fact that
               | many people experience no ill effects. (That is, it
               | obviously can 't be super-ultra-deadly, because it's not
               | killing everyone instantly. How dangerous it could
               | possibly be is bounded by the fact that many people have
               | received the vaccine.)
        
               | nicoburns wrote:
               | Presumably the effect is also bounded by the fact that it
               | can't reproduce.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | Wouldn't that lead to heart inflammation with pretty much
               | every sickness then? And given that the vaccine side
               | effects are often less than a common cold, I don't know
               | if that's particularly compelling.
        
               | triceratop wrote:
               | The logic here is astounding. You blame the immune system
               | instead of the vaccine, because the population has been
               | conditioned to believe vaccines, even if experimental,
               | are without risk.
        
               | derbOac wrote:
               | Along those lines, I am wondering how this compares to
               | other non-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
        
         | gabriel9 wrote:
         | This sounds more scary then covid. At least from the people who
         | told me how was it when they had the infection, four of my
         | friends to be precise. Did you doctor said about any long term
         | issues or it is too early?
        
         | pmccarren wrote:
         | Anecdote: I too experienced this reaction, albeit after the
         | first dose.
         | 
         | Noticeable but not significant heart pain beginning
         | approximately 4 hours after getting the first vaccine.
         | 
         | Speaking with medical professionals, they said symptoms should
         | improve with time, and they have nearly completely across the
         | 1.5 months since.
         | 
         | Unsure if worth noting, but I had very strong immune responses
         | to both the first and second doses.
        
           | pmccarren wrote:
           | Pure, unadulterated speculation:
           | 
           | It felt like the mRNA took hold in both my arm, _and_ my
           | heart. Which given the proximity and paths between, is not
           | entirely surprising.
           | 
           | It felt like the vaccine entered my bloodstream and was taken
           | up, in part, by the heart. Which then started making spike
           | protein and soliciting an immune response.
           | 
           | I'd really love to learn more about this, but haven't been
           | able to find any good resources. If anyone can point me in
           | the right direction, I'm all ears!
        
             | bialpio wrote:
             | This post was interesting to me and would mean that if the
             | shot got into your bloodstream, it could've been mis-
             | administered? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27464226
        
               | pmccarren wrote:
               | That is very intriguing.
               | 
               | The location of injection site was spot on. However, I'm
               | unsure if there are other factors at work beyond
               | specifically location
        
               | nicoburns wrote:
               | I was also wondering that. There was only the tiniest
               | spot of blood when I got mine.
        
       | xml123 wrote:
       | Can the government present anything in a useful manner?
       | 
       | The most important information, i.e. if the young men engaged in
       | heavy sports right after getting the vaccine, is missing.
       | 
       | Heavy sports is obviously also dangerous while recovering from
       | the flu.
       | 
       | But the disorganized chaotic government presentation doesn't give
       | any useful information.
        
         | jimmyswimmy wrote:
         | Your question isn't really well-posed. It's more about
         | scientific communications than about government communications,
         | and scientists are notoriously poor at communicating nuanced
         | technical information to the general public. And the general
         | public is notoriously poor at appreciating nuance.
         | 
         | Really, if this were intended for public consumption, they
         | would avoid abbreviations like "AEs" and instead spell out
         | "Adverse Events" or maybe be much more specific. I doubt most
         | people even on here know what "pyrexia" is, I had to look it up
         | to be sure.
         | 
         | Anyway, more to your point, the data presented is collected
         | from VAERS. I've spent some time reading these exact data
         | lately to try to understand the risk/reward for vaccinating
         | children. The system is intentionally, I think, focused on a
         | free-text data input, along with a huge grab bag of drop-down-
         | box symptoms. In any event, there's no obvious way to ensure
         | people report other activities.
         | 
         | If you read some of the VAERS reports you might appreciate my
         | point better. They range from professional reports clearly
         | written by a medical professional, to personal discussions, and
         | in this age group have a lot of reports written by parents. In
         | none of the hundreds I read did a person describe participation
         | in heavy sports. By that omission we can conclude nothing
         | whatsoever regarding the relationship between heavy sports and
         | vaccination.
         | 
         | The powerpoint from FDA that I read actually gave a lot of
         | useful information. It was a much better summary of the VAERS
         | data than I was able to glean by manually reading through the
         | reports. Myocarditis <edit: no!> and syncope seemed to me to be
         | the most frequent side effect of vaccination at least in this
         | age group, and the powerpoint seems to align with my
         | impression.
         | 
         | EDIT: Syncope seemed to me to be the most frequent based on
         | eyeballing the reports. I actually didn't notice myocarditis at
         | all when I first looked through VAERS reports, not sure why I
         | wrote that originally.
        
         | searine wrote:
         | That is a hypothesis but there isn't enough data yet to prove
         | that is the definitive truth. We know it's rare, its above the
         | expected mean, but could still be just statistical noise.
         | 
         | It would be irresponsible to report that as the headline
         | because this is still a developing topic. What's important is
         | that the FDA was watching it closely enough to detect the
         | effect, and are following up on it.
         | 
         | Good job FDA. That's the kind of thing I want my taxes spent
         | on.
        
         | macinjosh wrote:
         | Be careful criticizing government on HN it will be buried in
         | down votes by the fanatics for whatever party is currently in
         | power.
        
           | dang wrote:
           | Please don't break the site guidelines like this. Comments
           | like this are tedious and the perceptions are notoriously in
           | the eye of the beholder.
           | 
           | (No, we don't care if people criticize the government. We
           | care about comment quality and ensuing discussion quality.)
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        
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