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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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it’s been known for quite a while that Covid itself leads to heart attacks, arrhythmias, and other heart problems.

Research presented at the American Heart Association’s Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Scientific Sessions 2022 suggests SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein can lead to heart muscle injury through an inflammatory process:

“It’s already known from the clinical side that COVID-19 infection can induce heart injury, however, what we don’t know is the mechanistic details of how this occurs. What we suspect is that the spike protein has unknown pathological roles,” said Dr. Zhiqiang Lin, lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the Masonic Medical Research Institute in Utica, New York. “Our data show that the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 causes heart muscle damage. That’s why it’s important to get vaccinated and prevent this disease,” he added. [emphasis mine]

But that's old news to amateur followers of virology news; doctors were warning early on that the spike protein itself was not just a highly identifiable piece of the virus, it was also likely the mechanism behind COVID-19 heart attacks — and thus any rise in heart attack deaths among vaccinated people not normally considered at risk for heart disease:

[Researcher Byram Bridle] claimed the information shows that the spike protein produced by the vaccines, which is intended to prevent the coronavirus from infecting the body, does not remain in the shoulder muscle but gets into the blood — and can lead to clotting, bleeding, heart problems and neurological damage. "In short, the conclusion is, we made a big mistake," Bridle said. "We didn’t realize it until now. We thought the spike protein was a great target antigen. We never knew the spike protein itself was a toxin, and was a pathogenic protein. So, by vaccinating people, we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin. Some people, this gets into circulation, and when that happens in some people, they can cause damage, especially in the cardiovascular system. And I have many other legitimate questions about the long-term safety, therefore, of this vaccine."

Politifact rated these claims False because “Experts say there is no evidence that the spike protein produced by the vaccines is a toxin that could cause heart problems and neurological damage. The Canadian viral immunologist who made the claim has not produced evidence to back it up.”

Reading between the lines, the cited experts are saying the spike protein is not toxic because the vaccine and vaccinated cells stay at the injection site and never reach the heart to cause myocarditis. If further research shows that claim to be false, it’s the last link in the chain giving strong evidence that the spike-producing vaccines were indeed a Bad Fucking Idea.

Reading between the lines, the cited experts are saying the spike protein is not toxic because the vaccine and vaccinated cells stay at the injection site and never reach the heart to cause myocarditis. If further research shows that claim to be false, it’s the last link in the chain giving strong evidence that the spike-producing vaccines were indeed a Bad Fucking Idea.

That's been know to be false (by Pfizer at least) since before the thing was even released -- their submission to the Japanese government included a pharmokinetics assessment that showed spike-carrying nanoparticles pretty much everywhere. (in mice, I think -- but this a case where the response should be pretty similar for mammals in general)

I'm sure it's floating around the internet still -- the original was in Japanese only, but with English tables so still pretty intelligible.