Last month, a research study was published suggesting coronavirus vaccines were linked to heart inflammation, giving fuel to a number of anti-vaccination websites — but that study is now being retracted due to an enormous miscalculation by the study’s authors.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute paper, which was published on September 16 before being peer-reviewed, erroneously claimed that 1 in 1,000 people who received an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine developed a heart inflammation condition called myocarditis.
The paper was subsequently shared by a number of anti-vaccination blogs and social media profiles, including a far-right U.K. website that suggested “over 3,000 children in the UK could suffer” from myocarditis because of the mRNA vaccines.
But the paper’s conclusion was based on the false assertion that researchers had observed 32,379 vaccine doses over a two-month period of time, during which around 32 instances of myocarditis were identified. However, the study had actually observed over 854,000 mRNA vaccinations in that time frame.
The error is a considerable one. Instead of 1 in 1,000 vaccinated individuals developing myocarditis, as the paper initially stated, the figure is closer to 1 in 26,688 — meaning that the authors vastly overstated the possibility of developing heart inflammation.
In reality, the risks that come with getting vaccinated for getting protection against COVID are far less significant than the risks of not getting vaccinated. In fact, a person is more likely to develop myocarditis after contracting COVID-19 than they are after getting vaccinated.
Vaccine hesitancy remains high in the U.S., where just 65 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine since they were made publicly available earlier this year. According to recent numbers from the polling organization Morning Consult, 18 percent of Americans say they will never get a COVID vaccine, while another 10 percent say they’re still hesitant about doing so.
Misinformation about side effects could be driving those hesitancy numbers up. Thirty-five percent of adults who were “uncertain” about getting vaccinated against COVID cited worries about purported side effects, and 25 percent of adults who said they would never get vaccinated claimed that potential side effects were the reason why.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.