US cardiologist makes sweeping false claims about effects of Covid-19 vaccinations
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 8, 2023 at 16:10
- Updated on November 8, 2023 at 16:14
- 19 min read
- By Anna HOLLINGSWORTH, AFP Finland
- Translation and adaptation Erin FLANAGAN
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"Expert Hearing in the EU Parliament 13.09.2023," reads the text overlaying a 16-minute-long video published on Facebook on September 20, 2023.
Shared more than 1,700 times, the clip features Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist known for spreading health disinformation, purportedly speaking on an "expert panel" at the European Parliament (archived here).
In the footage, McCullough discusses the Covid-19 pandemic and mRNA vaccines, claiming that patients did not receive proper treatment for the infection and that the jabs caused a second "wave of injury" in addition to the primary health effects linked to the disease.
mRNA is short for "messenger RNA" or a molecule that teaches our cells to make a certain protein -- in Covid's case, the spike protein -- that the immune system recognises as foreign (archived here).
Cells then start to produce antibodies against the protein so that the body will trigger a normal immune response when they encounter the virus.
The footage includes the logo for McCullough’s website and newsletter called "Courageous Discourse".
McCullough’s presentation has circulated in other languages, including German, Swedish, and Slovak.
AFP Fact Check originally fact-checked this video in Swedish and has previously debunked other claims made by McCullough about Covid-19.
While the vaccine can have adverse side effects, the claim that it caused a widespread second wave of adverse health issues is false.
The mRNA vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 14.9 million excess deaths were associated with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 (archived here).
Excess mortality is the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would have been expected if the pandemic had not happened (archived here).
The Covid-19 vaccination programme, the largest in history, saw almost 40 million doses administered in South Africa alone (archived here).
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna created a vaccine containing mRNA that instructs the recipient’s cells to produce the spike protein (archived here).
Other vaccines, such as those produced by AstraZeneca and Janssen, are viral vector vaccines, which also contain the genetic instructions for the protein. The difference is that the genetic code is delivered to human cells via an unrelated, harmless virus (archived here).
Proven safety record
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), an EU body monitoring pharmaceutical safety, said the jabs had saved millions of lives (archived here).
They more than halved the estimated global death toll by reducing the risk of infection during the first year of the vaccination rollout (archived here), according to researchers.
For the EMA, there is "no evidence of an increase in deaths related to Covid-19 vaccination in any age group" (archived here).
"Before their authorisation, the vaccines were tested in tens of thousands of participants in randomised controlled clinical trials to confirm they met the EMA’s scientific standards for safety, efficacy and quality," the agency told AFP Fact Check.
"With a Covid-19 death toll of over 6,9 million people worldwide reported to the WHO… [and] still unknown long-term consequences of the disease, the human cost of natural immunity to Covid-19 [by] letting the virus infect an unprotected population is not tolerable."
The European Parliament reaffirmed in a July 2023 resolution that the vaccines authorised in the EU were effective in avoiding serious disease and death (archived here).
False claim about mRNA duration
In his remarks, McCullough alleges that mRNA and the spike protein -- the part of the coronavirus that enables it to enter human cells (archived here) -- continue circulating in the body and that mRNA cannot be broken down, resulting in adverse effects.
"There’s not a single study showing that the messenger RNA is broken down," he says.
However, according to experts, this is false.
The "production of spike protein is very transitory… The injected RNA as well as the proteins triggered by it disintegrate very quickly," Frédéric Altare of French health research institute INSERM told AFP in July 2023.
In September 2023, Altare told AFP Fact Check about recent developments regarding the mRNA vaccine and spike protein.
"Certain modifications… have improved the life expectancy of both the RNA and the protein it produces in order to improve their capacity to activate a stronger immune response," he said.
Only pieces of the spike protein could remain in the body, he added, and research so far shows no negative side effects from the prolonged presence of remnants from the spike protein.
As for mRNA, it is naturally fragile, according to experts such as RNA specialist Bowen Li of the University of Toronto.
"mRNA breaks down quickly in tissues and blood, often within days, due to its inherent fragility," the assistant professor told AFP Fact Check on October 6, 2023.
However, the mRNA is housed inside lipid particles, which are essentially tiny balls of fat protecting the delicate molecules (archived here).
This means mRNA with this protective layer can be detected for longer than unprotected mRNA, which is eliminated quickly by RNA-breaking enzymes, Sweden's Medical Products Agency (MPA) told AFP.
The amount of spike protein produced is so small that it is difficult to determine just how quickly it is broken down.
Several studies suggesting that vaccine mRNA has a limited lifespan are detailed in this debunk by Health Feedback, a worldwide network of fact-checking scientists (archived here).
Findings don't back up claim
To back up his claims, McCullough also references research papers "by Castruita" showing "mRNA circulating for a month".
Although he does not cite a specific paper, a keyword search brings up this study written by "Castruita et al." and published in March 2023 in APMIS, a journal of pathology, microbiology and immunology (archived here).
The researchers found "full-length or traces of SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccine sequences" in the blood of 10 samples out of 108 from patients with chronic hepatitis C up to 28 days after receiving the Covid-19 vaccination.
However, according to one of the paper’s co-authors, the findings cannot be used to back McCullough’s argument about mRNA not leaving the body.
"There is no evidence for long-term persistence over time," Henrik Westh, a clinical professor at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP Fact Check on September 29, 2023.
Westh explained that the coverage -- or how much of the vaccine is traceable -- is "high just after vaccination, declines over time, and is gone after 28 days in our cohort of patients".
"There are no data on any side effects associated with our findings. I believe, in fact, that it could be an advantage for the immune response to Covid vaccination," he said, referring to the prolonged presence of mRNA.
Rare cardiovascular risk
McCullough goes on to claim that the vaccine spike protein causes cardiovascular issues including myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
However, experts say Covid-19 infections - and other viral diseases - carry a higher risk of cardiovascular illnesses than the vaccines.
While myocarditis and pericarditis, or inflammation of the heart lining, are mentioned as possible side effects in the Pfizer and Moderna product information (archived here and here), the European Medecine Agency categorises them as "very rare".
"It is true that there are these rare incidences of myocarditis and pericarditis following the mRNA vaccines and a little more common with Moderna than Pfizer initially and generally in young men," the chief scientific officer at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Peter Liu told AFP Fact Check.
"The incidence is still very, very low – less than eight per million."
Mats Börjesson, a professor specialising in sports cardiology at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, said that the risk for myocarditis exists for virtually all viral diseases.
"And even if Covid doesn't have as big a risk for myocarditis per case as, for example, influenza infection, there were many cases of myocarditis globally … because so many got ill," he said.
"The risk of myocarditis in the case of Covid infection is clearly higher, which altogether leads to a clearly reduced risk of myocarditis if you have been vaccinated."
Börjesson also confirmed that myocarditis following the vaccination would be "a milder form" than one caused by an infection.
A May 2022 Nordic study found that for 16-to-24-year-old men, nine to 28 people in 100,000 contracted myocarditis after Moderna’s vaccine and four to seven in 100,000 after Pfizer’s vaccine (archived here).
Cases were "very rare" and most of the instances were mild.
Preprint 'rife' with inaccuracies
Nonetheless, McCullough cited a paper he co-authored, purportedly showing that 100 percent of deaths from suspected myocarditis were due to the vaccine.
AFP Fact Check identified the paper as a so-called preprint published in 2023, looking at 28 autopsy cases with "Covid-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis as a possible cause of death" (archived here).
Preprints are preliminary research reports that have not undergone peer review. As a result, their quality and reliability can vary.
Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University specialising in virology, highlighted several issues with the preprint (archived here).
"It is rife with inaccurate statements about Covid-19 vaccines and misleading citation of sources," he told AFP Fact Check on October 4, 2023.
"The report’s retrospective analysis of 28 autopsies conducted during a time period associated with one billion doses of vaccine does not provide evidence of a causal link between vaccination and cardiovascular complications,” he added.
Liu of the Ottawa Heart Institute added that many cases cited in the paper included patients in an advanced age category. The age cohort is at odds with myocarditis associated with vaccines, he said, because it was more likely to affect younger people.
McCullough also claimed myocarditis caused by the vaccines was linked to cardiac arrests among young athletes.
AFP Fact Check has debunked several similar claims in the past.
Common heart conditions
Liu explained that some of the other complications mentioned by McCullough – including heart attacks and arrhythmias – are sometimes reported post-vaccination.
But they are common conditions and any association with the vaccines has so far been incidental.
Börjesson of Gothenburg University said it remains debatable whether vaccines, like the infection itself, could also cause other serious cardiovascular events.
"There is a lack of population-based studies that support this," Börjesson said.
"A study showed no increase in myocardial infarction after vaccination, while another study showed a smaller risk of myocardial infarction [heart attack] after Covid-19 in fully-vaccinated people. When it comes to stroke, there have been conflicting results."
Ray of Johns Hopkins echoed this.
"Vaccination to prevent Covid-19 is very uncommonly associated with cardiovascular complications - and the latter are more commonly associated with Covid-19," he said.
High bloody pressure
McCullough also claims that cardiovascular damage from the vaccine is "more than anything we’ve ever seen with cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes".
The Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium published a paper in the October 2023 New England Journal of Medicine identifying five common risk factors for cardiovascular disease (archived here).
"Particularly high blood pressure is the leading cause [for cardiovascular disease], high cholesterol is next, diabetes is the major driver of cardiovascular mortality worldwide," said Liu of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, referring to the paper’s findings.
He added that heart attacks and strokes are not seen in the numbers that would be expected if they were associated with the vaccines.
Similarly, Ray of Johns Hopkins said that "with the exception of rare cases of myocarditis – which is more strongly associated with Covid-19 infection than with the vaccines – there is no rigorous evidence to support the suggestion that mRNA vaccination to prevent Covid-19 carries the risk of cardiovascular [complications] comparable to high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, or diabetes".
Risk of blood clots
McCullough also claims the mRNA vaccine is causing "blood clots like we’ve never seen before", alleging the spike protein is "the most thrombogenic protein we’ve ever seen in human medicine".
Clotting complications have been associated with viral vector vaccines but not mRNA vaccines (archived here).
"Some adenovirus vector-based Covid-19 vaccines have, rarely, been associated with more serious blood clotting complications," Ray said.
"Serious blood clotting complications are not strongly associated with mRNA vaccination."
Liu added that there was a very low risk, most common among middle-aged women, of developing blood clots in the brain, "associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is a more traditional viral-based vaccine" (archived here).
He explained that blood clotting in patients infected with Covid-19 is believed to be linked to the ACE2 receptor, which the virus uses to enter cells.
Ray backed this. "A striking feature of the initial wave of Covid-19 was clotting complications – and available evidence suggests that mRNA vaccination to prevent Covid-19 is far less strongly associated with blood clotting than the disease they prevent," he said.
Börjesson said there was "no evidence" for describing the spike protein as the most thrombogenic protein.
AFP has fact-checked several claims about vaccines and blood clots in the past.
Neurological side effects
McCullough also claims a litany of the vaccine’s purported neurological and immunological side effects.
He cites a range of neurological conditions ranging from stroke to headaches.
However, while possible links between vaccines and many conditions are researched, causal links between mRNA vaccines and most of these conditions have not been established.
AFP Fact Check showed McCullough’s list of purported adverse effects to the MPA, Sweden's medical oversight agency.
It confirmed that these and many others had been reviewed for a possible causal link with the Covid-19 vaccines.
"For those types of events where a causal relationship seems plausible, they are classified as side effects and listed in the product information," they said, adding that other cases are monitored.
Of the conditions listed by McCullough, only headaches are mentioned in the Pfizer and Moderna production information documents under "very common side effects".
"It is important to remember that these vaccines have been given to a very large number of individuals around the world (millions) and that a great number of these individuals had other illnesses before vaccination and/ or are affected by (worsened) illness at some point after vaccination even if there is no causal relationship," the MPA said.
Liu agreed, saying that "it’s essential to distinguish between events that occur after vaccination and events caused by the vaccine".
While rare side effects have been reported, the causal relationship between the vaccine and many of the severe conditions listed by McCullough is not established, he explained.
EMA’s safety committee looked into cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome reported after Covid-19 vaccination. But as of publication, there is insufficient evidence showing a possible link between the two (archived here).
It is worth noting that some of the conditions flagged by McCullough have been linked to non-mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.
The product information for both the Janssen and AstraZeneca vaccines – both viral vector vaccines – mention Guillain-Barré syndrome and thrombocytopenia as "very rare" side effects (archived here and here).
Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare disorder in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the nervous system (archived here).
The EMA’s website lists the two conditions as rare side effects of the two viral vector vaccines.
Flawed studies
McCullough bases his claims on several questionable citations. These include a paper by "Schmeling and colleagues from Denmark", which allegedly says that 30 percent of vaccinated people have no side effects, 70 percent have moderate side effects, and 4.2 percent have serious side effects, depending on the batch.
Using a keyword search, AFP Fact Check only found one possible relevant document — a research letter in the March 2023 European Journal of Clinical Investigation (archived here).
It looked at rates of suspected adverse effects between different batches of the Pfizer vaccine administered in Denmark.
The exact figures mentioned by McCullough are not found in the letter, but it states that 4.22 percent of all vaccine doses came from batches associated with the most suspected adverse effects.
So, the 4.22 percent does not refer to the proportion of people with serious side effects but to batches of vaccines with the highest rates of suspected adverse side effects.
The remaining 63.69 percent and 32.02 percent came from batches linked to the next most and least suspected adverse effects, respectively.
Moreover, the letter highlights as one of its limitations that the data comes from the Danish Medical Agency, which uses a so-called passive reporting system to monitor adverse reactions.
This means the information is supplied voluntarily by doctors and patients and such is "subject to reporting biases, with potential for both under- and over-reporting, as well as incomplete data and variable quality of the reported information".
The authors conclude that because of this, "signals detected by these systems... generally cannot be used to establish causality".
In this Danish news article, experts also point to several errors in the study’s statistical methods and data used (archived here).
The MPA told AFP Fact Check that they had not seen any evidence to support the conclusions drawn about certain batches causing more adverse effects than others.
McCullough also claims that, as the co-author of the "largest autopsy study ever assembled of death after Covid-19 vaccination worldwide", he found that 73.9 percent of deaths after vaccination were caused by the vaccine.
AFP fact-checked the study in July, interviewing experts who pointed to flawed methodology and doubts about the authors’ credentials.
The preprint appeared first on a server associated with the well-known medical journal The Lancet but was removed because its methodology did not support its conclusions (archived here).
Natural immunity wanes over time
McCullough also addresses the topic of Covid-19 treatments.
He claims that only early treatment and natural immunity could prevent hospitalisation and death.
"The majority of hospitalisations and deaths were completely avoidable in the highest-risk patients with early intervention," he says, recommending nasal sprays and gargles as well as intravenous and oral drugs administered at home.
However, as the MPA explained, it is safer to be vaccinated than to be infected.
"Covid-19 has proved to be a serious and unpredictable disease, generating new diagnoses in healthcare such as long Covid," it said.
While natural immunity is effective, it wanes over time and entails the potential risk of severe disease, the EMA told AFP Fact Check.
Waning also happens with vaccines, but "boosters reinforce the ability of the body to build resistance against the disease without having to be exposed to potentially severe outcomes of the disease again", it said.
Early in the pandemic, AFP Fact Check debunked claims about gargling as a prevention method for Covid-19 early.
Both the EMA and the MPA said there were currently no virucidal nasal sprays available for the treatment of Covid-19.
Discredited associations
At the end of his talk, McCullough mentions that the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the World Council for Health (WCH) advocate for a ban on Covid-19 vaccines.
The AAPS is a nonprofit organisation of doctors while the the WCH describes itself as a "global coalition of health-focused initiatives and civil society groups".
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked vaccine disinformation shared by the AAPS and the World Council for Health.
In March 2023, the AAPS called for a "moratorium" on what it described as "Covid-19 shot mandates and genetic injections", while the World Council of Health claimed in 2021 that the vaccines were "unsafe".
Not an official hearing
The Facebook post refers to McCullough’s talk as an "expert hearing" at the European Parliament.
A keyword search for "McCullough expert hearing European Parliament" leads to the website of Christine Anderson, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) (archived here).
Her site advertises a so-called expert hearing titled "Health & Democracy under WHO’s new proposed rules" held in a meeting room at the European Parliament on September 13, 2023.
Several speakers are listed alongside five MEPs hosting the event. At the bottom right of the flyer, the logo for the Identity and Democracy (ID) group is visible.
The ID is a group of far-right MEPs (archived here).
The talk involving McCullough was not an official European Parliament hearing.
A parliamentary committee is allowed to organise a hearing with experts "essential to its work on a particular subject", according to the parliament’s website (archived here).
"Most committees organise regular hearings, as they allow them to hear from experts and hold discussions on the key issues."
The website lists all committee hearings and none were shown for September 13, 2023, when McCullough’s presentation took place.
The talk "was not an official event of the European Parliament and it was not organised nor funded by the European Parliament", the parliament confirmed to AFP Fact Check in an email sent on September 28, 2023.
In his remarks, McCullough also notes that he moderated a session at the US Senate on December 7, 2022, where the expert panel concluded that all Covid-19 vaccines should be withdrawn.
A keyword search brings up a press release about a roundtable discussion organised by Senator Ron Johnson on the same day, with a video of the event on Johnson’s Rumble channel showing McCullough in attendance.
Other speakers included Robert Malone, whom AFP has already fact-checked for false claims about Covid-19 vaccines.
AFP has also fact-checked other claims made during Johnson’s roundtables.
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