Blame the virus

There’s a worrying thing happening worldwide at the moment. Anecdotally, we’re seeing a lot more people suffering from – and/or dying from – cardiac problems. Generally, these people tend to be relatively young, and often relatively fit. Certainly not the cohort you would expect to be hit in this way.

Of course, the tinfoilers are all over this. After all, what has changed since the onset of the Covid pandemic? Yes, the vaccine. So that must be it, because there’s nothing else that has been so ubiquitously distributed around the world (ha!), so QED, the vaccine is causing the problem.

You actually have to admire their scientific approach. Indeed, when we as scientists are trying to find out what causes something, we too look at changes in the systems which precede that thing. In this case, what we would also consider is:

THE ACTUAL VIRUS

And lookie here: this German study suggests that infection with Covid – even if it’s a mild infection – is associated with heart problems down the line.

And, surprise surprise, they found damage to the heart and increased cardiac markers (the chemicals in the blood that we measure to see if there is damage to the heart) in previously healthy patients.

This is a study that still needs more work (indeed, it’s still ongoing), but the signs are clear. If you have had Covid, you are more likely to have cardiac damage than if you didn’t have Covid. And while in many cases, that might only manifest itself in shortness of breath or chest pain, there will sadly be some individuals who suffer much more serious consequences. See my first paragraph above.

These observations fit well with another study – importantly mostly done before the vaccine was widely released – in which a team based in St Louis, USA found some very disturbing results regarding cardiac and circulatory problems post Covid infection:

Importantly, the more severe the infection (they used non-hospitalised, hospitalised and ICU) the greater the increase in risk, but in virtually every situation, the risk of heart or circulatory disorders was increased in those who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

So when we’re out there considering whether to take our booster jab for Covid, please look beyond the anti-vax nonsense. Please ignore the shouty people telling you that “the jab is killing healthy, young people”. No. It’s the damn virus that’s doing that.

And if you want to be better protected against the damn virus, go get the jab.