A leading NHS cardiologist has changed his mind about the potential health risks of the Covid vaccine following the death of his father - and he is now calling for the mRNA jabs to be suspended. Dr Aseem Malhotra had previously appeared on TV's Good Morning Britain to encourage vaccine uptake after praising vaccines as “one of medicine’s greatest achievements” in an article published in the Journal of Insulin Resistance.
He told The Telegraph that, at the time, he thought traditional vaccines were "the Holy Grail of medicine, and it was not even a possibility for me that they could do any harm". But he has now changed his mind on the Covid jabs following the sudden death of his father.
He told The Telegraph he "cannot understand" how Dr Kailash Chand, a former deputy chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), could suffer a fatal cardiac arrest. Dr Malhotra said that his father, 73, was "one of the fittest guys I knew" who was still walking up mountains shortly before he died.
However, a post-mortem revealed severe blockages in two of three major arteries and his son believes the booster vaccine he'd had six months previously was a factor in his death.
“I knew my dad’s medical history inside out,” Dr Malhotra told The Telegraph. "We did some heart scans a few years earlier and all was clear, so when the post-mortem showed severe blockages I couldn’t understand it, even though it was my (area of) expertise. At the time people were trolling me, saying it was the vaccine, and I got really angry and blocked them, because that was not my mindset. But then I started to notice increased incidences in cardiac deaths and I started to wonder.”
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has reported around 30,000 more deaths than expected involving heart disease since the pandemic began. In some weeks last year, there were more than 1,000 excess deaths with cardiovascular disease mentioned on the death certificate.
While Dr Malhotra acknowledges other causes are a factor, he is convinced vaccines are playing a role and he cited Pfizer’s own trial data which showed there were four cardiac arrests in those who took the vaccine compared with just one in the placebo group, to support his theory. He also referred to a controversial study published in the journal Circulation by the US cardiologist Dr Stephen Gundry, who claimed inflammatory markers in his patients soared after they received vaccines – taking their five-year heart attack risk from 11 per cent to 25 percent.
“That is a massive jump,” said Dr Malhotra. “If I decided to smoke 40 cigarettes a day, ate junk food, drank and didn’t exercise I couldn’t get anywhere near that.”
The Gundry study was heavily criticised and has been significantly amended to make clear the biomarker increases were observational, there was no control group, no unvaccinated patients were included, and no statistical comparison was conducted. And defenders of the vaccination point out that Covid itself is known to raise the risk of a stroke and heart attack, so the virus was likely to be a significant factor in the increase, at least in the first year of the pandemic.
The Telegraph also highlights the widespread disruption to heart care services since ‘Protect the NHS’ mandates were enacted by the Government, meaning patients often did not get critical treatment in time. While suspected heart attack patients should be picked up by ambulance within 18 minutes, that figure has risen to 48 minutes, and there are 350,000 heart patients currently waiting for time-sensitive treatment – an increase of 50 per cent since the pandemic began.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which asks doctors to report side effects via its ‘Yellow Card’ scheme, says since the roll-out there has been a steady trickle of heart complaints suspected to be linked to the jabs. Figures up to November 23 last year show the MHRA has received 851 reports of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – linked to the Pfizer vaccination.
There have also been a further 579 reports of pericarditis – inflammation of the lining outside the heart – linked to the jab. Most cases were mild, with individuals recovering in a short time, although there have been seven deaths.
Oxford’s AstraZeneca jab was linked to 241 reports of myocarditis and 226 reports of pericarditis, and six deaths. For Moderna there were 251 reports of myocarditis and 149 of pericarditis, and two deaths, reports the Telegraph.
However, by last autumn, 53 million first-dose Covid jabs had been administered in Britain - and more than 90 million boosters.
Nonetheless, for younger people – particularly young men – the risk does seem to be higher. The Telegraph says this could explain why people are linking the vaccine to the collapse of athletes such as American football star Damar Hamlin on the field. Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest and needed to be twice resuscitated.
Dr Malhotra tweeted about the incident, saying: “One obvious question many are asking is whether he had the mRNA jab.” He wrote that myocarditis (heart inflammation) is a side-effect linked to the vaccine and increases “sudden cardiac death risk in contact sports”, where “blunt impact to the chest” is common. Defenders of the vaccine point out that Covid also carries a risk of myocarditis – and one that is far higher than the vaccine, at 1,500 cases per million infections.
The BHF told The Telegraph: “The scientific consensus is that the benefits of Covid vaccination, including a reduced risk of severe illness or death, far outweigh the very small risk of rare side effects like myocarditis or pericarditis for the vast majority of people, especially as people get older. This is why it’s particularly important if you’re over 50 that you have a booster when offered it to give you even greater protection.”
A major review by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that although there would be up to 47 more cases of myocarditis in 12- to 29-year-old males per million vaccines, the jabs would prevent 11,000 Covid infections, 560 hospitalisations, 138 ICU admissions and six deaths.
Dr Chenyu Sun, of Saint Joseph Hospital Chicago, who recently carried out a meta-analysis of myocarditis after vaccination involving 58 million people, told The Telegraph: “When myocarditis or pericarditis develop after a Covid vaccination, the symptoms are usually less severe and largely self-remitting compared with other cases.
He said he "strongly" recommended people get a Covid vaccine "unless there are absolute contraindications such as known allergies”.
Nonetheless, Dr Aseem Malhotra has, on Twitter, asked "why has the mRNA jab not been suspended?". He has also retweeted tweets that appear to be supportive of MP Andrew Bridgen, who was suspended from the Conservative party after he posted a now-deleted tweet - with a link to an article about the safety monitoring analyses for covid - that claimed "one cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust".
However, Dr Aseem Malhotra said he wants "to make it very clear" that he is "NOT the cardiologist who made reference to the Holocaust in the now-deleted tweet by Andrew Bridgen".
A Lancet medical journal reported that rare heart problems could be a side-effect of all vaccines, and not specific to Covid jabs or the spike protein. It suggested the number of reports seems greater because of the large scale of the vaccination roll-out and the unprecedented scrutiny it has received.
Meanwhile, the BHF is examining if myocarditis – caused by either the vaccine or the virus – can cause scarring of the heart muscle, which might lead to future health problems. Dr Malhotra claims the jab can accelerate the development of heart disease. And he now includes "vaccine damage" in his diagnoses of patients.
There have been 15 deaths from myocarditis or pericarditis in Britain, while it is estimated vaccination in Britain saved 112,000 lives in the first year alone.
A spokesperson for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) said: “Following a careful assessment of the available data, we concluded that the evidence does not support an association between the Covid vaccines and an increased risk of cardiac-related death. Vaccines are the best way to protect people from Covid and have already saved tens of thousands of lives.”
