DR Jonathan Engler and Dr Clare Craig, the co-chairs of HART (Health Advisory & Recovery Team), www.hartgroup.org with some 70 doctors and scientists from HART, have written to Dr Jenny Harries, the Chief Executive, UKHSA, urging her to take the cumulative and disturbing evidence of post-Covid vaccine myocarditis with the seriousness it warrants. Below we publish the letter, which details how myocarditis adverse events have been dangerously downplayed by the UK’s medical authorities, gives up-to-date evidence of its severity and cumulative effects, and outlines the actions immediately required from government.
Dr Jenny Harries.
Chief Executive, UKHSA
Copies: Dr Andrew Goddard: RCP, Dame Clare Gerada: RCGP, Professor Kevin Fenton: FPH,
Dr Jim McManus: ADPH, Dr Camilla Kingdon: RCPCH, Dr Tim Cooksley: Society for Acute Medicine, Dr John Greenwood: British Cardiovascular Soc, Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard: AoMRC
14th August 2022
Dear Dr Harries,
re: Covid-19-vaccine-associated Myocarditis – a Cumulative Risk
We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern at the guidance regarding further mRNA vaccination after any episode of myocarditis, as detailed in the UKHSA guidance for healthcare professionals.
Myocarditis severity has been downplayed:
The majority of patients with vaccine-associated myocarditis present with chest pain. This may be misinterpreted, by either the patient or doctor, as musculoskeletal pain, which is a recognised non-serious side effect of these products, and cardiac pathology could be missed. Any patient presenting with chest pain should be assessed immediately in hospital as this may be life-threatening.
During the Covid pandemic, anyone admitted to hospital with a positive test result was considered to have severe Covid-19. With myocarditis, every patient presenting with cardiac symptoms needs hospital assessment including ECGs, blood troponin levels and echocardiograms. This would therefore not fit the definition of a mild illness. A recent BMJ review quotes ‘Most people were admitted to hospital (≥84 per cent) for a short duration (two to four days).’ The review further quotes, ‘persistent echocardiogram abnormalities, as well as ongoing symptoms or a need for drug treatments or restriction from activities in >50 per cent of patients’. Where cardiac MRI scans have been performed, 89 per cent of patients have shown Late Gadolinium Enhancement (LGE), which is known to be a predictor of a bad prognosis. Inflammation of the heart can lead to fibrosis and other complications such as arrhythmias and death. Left undiagnosed and therefore untreated, there is also a real risk of silent left ventricular dysfunction. Myocarditis should be considered far from being a mild illness.
Read More – Post-vaccine myocarditis is not ‘mild’, warn doctors
