(LifeSiteNews) – mRNA COVID-19 vaccines pose higher risks of potentially deadly heart inflammation for young men than the virus itself, according to a new study.
The pre-print study, published last month by British researchers, found that each dose of a COVID vaccine significantly heightens the risk of myocarditis for men under 40 years old. Myocarditis is a form of heart inflammation that can be life-threatening and that regulators have previously linked to the mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer.
The researchers analyzed the outcomes of more than 42 million Brits aged 13 years or older who have received at least one COVID shot, including around 22 million people who took an mRNA jab. They did not look for other cardiac-related side effects, like pericarditis and blood clots, which are also associated with the COVID injections.
Heart inflammation risks for young men multiplied after every Pfizer or Moderna dose, according to the study. The myocarditis risk after an initial Pfizer vaccine doubled after a second shot and again after a third, to more than 7.6 times the baseline risk.
The risk after a second dose of Moderna was 16 times higher than average.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, an adenovirus vector vaccine, likewise posed an elevated risk of myocarditis for young men after the second dose. The association was smaller than for either mRNA vaccine.
Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson commented that the heart risks are likely dose-related, as the Moderna shot contains 100 micrograms of mRNA, compared with 30 for Pfizer.
Berenson noted that the British study contains evidence that myocarditis after mRNA vaccination may be more dangerous than other forms of the condition.
In a supplementary table, the researchers identified around 550 cases of people hospitalized for myocarditis within four weeks of vaccination and 79 post-vaccination myocarditis deaths, 38 of which occurred after a Pfizer shot. Of the patients hospitalized after Pfizer vaccination, 14 percent died, compared with 9 percent of those without a recent mRNA vaccine.
The death rate for myocarditis after any dose of the Pfizer vaccine was higher than for heart inflammation due to COVID for most gender and age subgroups.
Young men also had a higher rate of hospitalization for myocarditis after a second AstraZeneca or Pfizer jab or a dose of Moderna compared with myocarditis from COVID-19.
Among the study’s other findings, nearly half of the 5 million people involved in the study who contracted the virus did so after at least one jab. Almost one-third, or 1.6 million people, tested positive despite being double-vaccinated.
The new study comes as dozens of colleges and universities force students to get a booster before returning to campus, regardless the dangers of myocarditis for male students and the extremely low risks of COVID-19 for younger age groups. The universities include Notre Dame, Georgetown, and MIT, as well as the entire Ivy League.
Stanford University medical professor Dr. John Ionnidis has estimated the survival rate of coronavirus for people between age 20 and 29 at 99.986 percent.