COVID Vaccines Cause Myocarditis… but So Does COVID
A new study shows that the outcomes are not the same.
Second only to George Washington’s use of live smallpox to vaccinate revolutionary soldiers in 1777, the COVID vaccines may be the most controversial in US history. This is not to say that they should be controversial — I’m one of those people who look at the data and come down on the side of decent efficacy and minimal safety risk. But we can’t deny the reality here — the public is much more skeptical of COVID vaccines than the flu vaccine or the RSV vaccine for example. This is true for those who identify as Republicans or Democrats although the latter group is less vaccine hesitant in general.
There are myriad reasons for the (in my opinion unwarranted) covid vaccine skepticism: mixed messaging about efficacy, poor communication about the underlying mRNA technology, and, of course, this myocarditis thing.
It is now clear that a small percentage of people develop myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — after receiving the Pfizer or Moderna, mRNA-based COVID vaccines. Complicating the risk/benefit calculus, the people who are seemingly at…
