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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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A few months ago, my mother-in-law (mid-70s, and not the most reliable source), suffered a mild heart attack hours after receiving both her Covid booster and a flu shot. She said the ER nurse asked her if she had been boosted recently and followed with "We see this all the time." Coincidentally, my dad (late 70s, fully boosted) also suffered a mild heart attack around this time last year while in the hospital for a colonoscopy, and the doctors told him it was probably stress-related.

I do look skeptically at the anti-vaxxers who act like no one ever had heart or health issues prior to the Covid vaccine, but there does seem to be a lot more noticing going on, and no trust that anyone in power would admit if any of that noticing was of something real.

I think the smoking gun is that so many of these people are young athletes. Musicians and actors dying in suspicious circumstances is Tuesday; athletes have historically not done that because if they weren't in peak physical health they wouldn't be notable athletes, they'd be wannabes. That to me requires explaining.

Could Performance Enhancing Drugs be a contributor? My first mean thought when hearing about an athlete's sudden heart problems is the possibility that drugs were a factor.

Several of my friends and family believe in all kinds of paranormal stuff, including ghosts and dreams that predict the future. They have stories of things that they claimed happened to them that, if true, would confirm their beliefs. These are otherwise intelligent people who I would believe if I didn't know that what they were telling me was impossible. So, I would give almost no credence to a nurse who claims to have noticed a pattern in when people have heart attacks.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36436002/

I am spamming this and I apologize to anyone who's mad about this. We can find evidence of special heart damage from the mRNA vaccine from autopsies. We have the FDA announcing a possible association with PE and Pfizer. This nurse could simply think "I've seen a slide of someone's damaged heart after vaccination, maybe it's connected." and all of a sudden you accuse them of a crime of logic.

Note both the fact there is a rare risk AND the nurse can be commiting a crime of logic can both be true. We already know that nurses and doctors are (like most people) generally terrible at statistics and interpreting things they notice as statistically significant events.

If there is an issue it would need to be analysed at a population level in a statistically significant way.

Otherwise we also have to give equal credence to nurses who posted stories about so many healthy young people dying of covid after not getting vaccinated and the like.

Fair. But during a period of intense censorship, a diffuse cloth of similar anecdotes and experiences actually ended up with some evidence and studies to confirm. Take the myocarditis risk, as well as possible sudden death from myocarditis, being proved experimentally. (check my post history if you interested in link)