I get caught up rubber-necking sometimes, too... https://t.co/iXdDS22RLH

I can't stand MDs touting garbage studies like this. The mRNA covid vaccines saved many lives. They were a risk:benefit loser for young men. It's okay to say that. In fact, it *builds trust* to admit that. Any MD should know better than to pump this study. It's embarrassing. 9/9

To bring the recent study into the realm of pure absurdity, they choose to highlight the safety of the mRNA vaccines re myocarditis by comparing it to the smallpox vaccine - a vaccine which causes myocarditis in young men at an even more alarming rate than the mRNA vaccines! 8/9

The problem, ofc, is every adolescent male myocarditis case got a covid test in the EHR. Does every adolescent male with a covid infection get a covid test recorded in the EHR? Of course not! I would guess ~10% do, at most. So, that "500/M" number is make-believe. 7/9

No! Nearly every EHR-logged post-viral myocarditis ends up in the hospital. Nearly everyone in the hospital in 2021 ends up w/ a covid test in the EHR. They take the 400 or so post-covid myocarditis cases in the EHR, divide into the 850K covid+ tests in the EHR to get a rate. 6/9

Most egregious is borrowing from a horrible CDC MMWR, unironically released on April Fools Day, 2022, to "set" their post-covid myocarditis rates: https://t.co/kJodFuAxEP They looked for young men hospitalized w/ myocarditis and checked for prior covid infection. Smart, eh? 5/9

Very egregious is not looking at the actual high-risk cohort: young men after 2nd shot. They look at young men; and everyone after 2nd shot; but not the actual high-risk cohort, so that 60/M is a deflated rate. Legitimate studies find the rate to be 1/2000-1/7000, in general. 4/9

So saying covid causes myocarditis in this cohort at a clip of 500 cases per million infections, and comparing it 60 cases per million of post-vax myocarditis, is apples-to-oranges. But that's the least of the problems with this study. ( https://t.co/re8VJPwFBi) 3/9

For starters, comparing rates of bad outcomes w/in a cohort should be an apples-to-apples comparison. To fully vaccinate a teen boy, we need to give him 2 shots. So 100% of vaxed boys experience 2nd shot. But do 100% of unvaxed boys get covid? Do 0% of vaxed boys get covid? 🤦‍♂️2/9

This is the well-intentioned vaccine misinformation story that simply will not die. https://t.co/2S9vWCT4ao No, in the high-risk cohort for post-mRNA-vaccine myocarditis, covid-19 infection does NOT present a higher risk of myocarditis. Let me count the ways... 1/9

Interesting timing, though, with the US about to declassify a trove of documents about their investigation into WIV next week. Perhaps some real insights will emerge? But for now my lab-leak agnosticism remains. 4/4

For those wanting to dig deeper, here is a long thread from a lab-leak-friendly commentator: https://t.co/bnYxTrYDhX a short one from VF writer Eban: https://t.co/CDs5otItsO and a debunk from an anti-lab-leaker: https://t.co/H16fgVbme3 No one loves this piece. No one honest. 3/4

You can make the case they are ignoring it b/c there's not a lot that is new, and what *is* new might well be hot garbage. But why not trot some experts in to discuss what must be huge news across the pond? 2/4

I was sent via @MarkReardonKFTK's henchmen an article from London's heavily-read, center-right, "The Times," purporting that China/PLA was deliberately engineering SARS-CoV-2 at the WIV: https://t.co/WfUTeytqXH Pretty inflammatory stuff! And the MSM is ignoring it over here. 1/4

Ofc, in the days before high levels of population immunity, mortality rates from Covid were wayyy over 1/M for folks in their 20s and 30s. However, the math is different now. Requiring 22 y/o male students to get boosters is terrible medicine... and thankfully is fading away. 6/6

Commentators who diminish the importance of this cause of myocarditis (ie @19joho ) might pause. While deaths & most severe events were in age 22-45 males, these were still fairly low-risk individuals in regard to Covid. 5/6

However, the study found rates of severe post-vaccine myocarditis in 20% of cases. Given that the overall VRM rate of 1/20K in males 12-17 is about 3-6X lower than most studies, there might be under-reporting of cases and this rate might be inflated. Still... this is no joke. 4/6

Those claiming an "epidemic" of footballers etc dropping like flies from mRNA vaccines must be disappointed. Historic annual sudden cardiac death rates range from 1/10,000-1/50,000 for high-level male basketball/football/soccer athletes. ~1/M barely would move the needle. 3/6

One headline is that 8 men age 12-45 died of sudden cardiac death w/ biopsy-proven myocarditis. By my calculations, that's out of about 7M who got mRNA vaccines in that demographic. So a little over 1 per million dying of SCM linked to vaccine. Concerning, but in context... 2/6

A worthwhile study on vaccine-related myocarditis from S Korea that might displease partisans on the issue: https://t.co/RFeJ9JcbO0 44M vaccinated Koreans (2/3rds with mRNA). Myocarditis followed if reported w/in their mandatory reporting system. Results are interesting! 1/6