A former cardiologist who was stripped of his board certification for promoting vaccine disinformation has co-authored two recent papers claiming that COVID-19 vaccines contribute to a large number of myocarditis deaths. One of the papers that was published and withdrawn in 2021 relies entirely on VAERS data and highlights cases of individuals who died 358 and 600 days after vaccination. The second paper, which involved a review of documents from autopsies that the researchers did not perform, was removed from a medical journal’s preprint database because its conclusions were unsupported.
The studies represent a continuation of the anti-vaccine tactic of promoting false claims through preprint, low-quality, and retracted studies. Debunking messaging may emphasize that studies found no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines caused deaths and ignored other more likely causes of death. Large-scale, credible, peer-reviewed studies consistently show that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and that myocarditis is far more common after COVID-19 infection.
