We are grateful to Dr Rafael Bornstein for sending us a translation of his recently published analysis of excess deaths, ‘Excess Mortality and Covid Vaccines. An Urgent Institutional Academic Investigation’ published just before Christmas in La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, a Spanish digital newspaper which the Spanish readers amongst you can find here. Prior to this article he had already warned about the correlation between vaccination campaigns in 41 countries and excess mortality registered in weeks 10 -35 of 2022. Here he sets out new evidence that further reinforces this association.
Dr Bornstein, a Senior Consultant in Hematology at Hospital Central de Cruz Roja in Madrid, is a highly experienced scientist and doctor who cannot be lightly dismissed. He has been Chief of Bone Marrow and Peripheral Blood Progenitor Cells Cryopreservation Unit and Chief of Molecular Biology Laboratory for genetic rearrangements in oncohematological disorders since 1989. He has contributed to research on leukemia and lymphoma, cord blood collection and processing, haematopoietic progenitor cells and placental mesenchymal stem cells. (Note: The article was published in December so ‘this year’ refers to 2022.)
A FEW weeks ago we warned about a significant and very evident correlation between Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in 41 countries (Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan) and the excess mortality registered in weeks 10 to 35 (March to August) of 2022. We saw that in that period the excess mortality ranged between 3.7 per cent in Bulgaria and 25 per cent in Iceland, with a majority range of 5 per cent to 15 per cent (Spain had an excess mortality of 12 per cent). By means of a simple linear regression analysis Igor Chudov was able to show an extremely strong relationship between the administration of the third booster dose and excess mortality (the more booster doses are administered, the greater excess mortality); booster vaccination accounted for 40 per cent of the variation in excess mortality. The same analysis referring to complete vaccination (first and second dose) offered a similar result although with a lower explanatory power (27 per cent).
In just two months, this association has been powerfully reinforced with an increasingly solid link between vaccines and excess mortality. Applying the same methodology, Chudov analyses on this occasionthe excess mortality in weeks 20 to 44 (May 16 to November 6, 2022), obtaining highly worrying results. Bulgaria, the country with the lowest vaccination rate (30 per cent) and booster doses (12 per cent), continues with a very low excess mortality (currently negative, -1.2 per cent). While Chile, leader in vaccination rates (88 per cent) and reinforcement (125 per cent), has the highest excess mortality (21 per cent). Spain has fallen during this period to 18 per cent, being now above the range observed in most countries (5 per cent to 15 per cent). Sweden maintains a very low excess mortality (1.6 per cent), confirming the behaviour of previous weeks (-8 per cent). Despite similar vaccination and booster rates to other countries, the case of Sweden is such an unusual exception that it should prompt conclusive research into the causes of this asymmetry.
Let us remember that these data mean that the deaths registered in Spain between May and November 2022, with an incidence of deaths from Covid-19 at historical lows, exceed an average of 1,500 people each week with respect to the mortality prior to the pandemic (56,000 more deaths since the beginning of the year). And in Germany, 2,300 more deaths per week (93,000 more deaths since the beginning of the year). Truly frightening figures in themselves, but even more worrying when we add those of the whole of Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea or Australia. In the US alone, 396,000 more deaths have been recorded between April 2021 and August 2022, which gives an idea of the terrible catastrophe we are experiencing.
This unprecedented excess mortality, absolutely unexpected when the pandemic is in clear decline (only 25 per cent of these excess deaths are due to Covid), and which already in the months of March to August correlated with the administration of Covid-19 vaccines significantly,is increasingly dependent on the vaccination and reinforcement rate as theyear progresses. The regression analysis applied to weeks 20 to 44 indicates that this association is even stronger than at weeks 10 to 35, as shown in the following figures taken from Igor Chudov:
Fig 1. Excess mortality vs. vaccination (1st and 2nd dose)
Fig 2. Excess mortality vs. booster dose (3rd dose)
The administration of two doses of vaccine (Fig. 1) and the third booster dose (Fig. 2) are extremely strongly related to excess mortality. In both cases the value of P is very low (< 0.0001), which makes it highly unlikely that this association is the result of chance. Furthermore, what is most striking is that if from week 10 to 35 the vaccination rate and the reinforcement rate explained only 27 per cent and 40 per cent of the variation in excess mortality, from week 20 to 44 both rates already explain almost half (49 per cent). That is, the strength of the correlation between excess mortality and vaccination is increasing over time.An evolution that is certainly disturbing, to say the least.
It must be stressed again that this powerful association between Covid-19 vaccines and excess mortality cannot simply be interpreted as a causal relationship. The correct interpretation is that there is an extremely strong relationship between vaccines and excess deaths in 2022, and that this correlation will probably continue to increaseas it has until now.
But it is very difficult to explain such a statistically significant association if there were no cause-and-effect relationship. And this possibility needs to be cleared immediately, particularly now that there is increasing information about the involvement of mRNA vaccines in the deaths of people who had recently been vaccinated.
According to the UK Office for Health, Improvement & Disparities, the UK’s excess mortality between weeks 20 and 44 this year amounts to 27,073 people. In 70 per cent the cause of death includes some type of cardiovasculardisease (ischemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke and circulatory disorders). An indeterminate number of such events could have evolved from acute myocarditis, one of the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines which has received maximum attention due to the severity of the condition and its potential life compromise, particularly in young patients.
The most demonstrative case, published in Vaccines in October by a German pathologist,Dr Michael Mörz, is a 76-year-old patient who died three weeks after receiving the third booster dose (Pfizer’s BNT162b2 mRNA). The autopsy requested by the family revealed unexpected histopathological findings at the brain level of acute vasculitis and multifocal necrotising encephalitis. Acute lymphohistiocytic myocarditis and small vessel pathological changes were also observed in the heart. Using immunohistochemistry for Spike and N (nucleocapsid) proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, only the presence of the Spike protein could be detected in foci of inflammation at both brain and heart, particularly in small vessel endothelial cells. Since nucleocapsid was not detected simultaneously, the expression of the Spike protein is unequivocally attributable to vaccination and not to a previous viral infection.
A second very similar publication describes the case of a 55-year-old patient who died four months after receiving the second dose of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. The autopsy findings revealed the presence of acute myocardial infarction, coronary arteritis, and lymphocytic myocarditis with acute inflammation foci and recent myocyte damage. Again, the Spike protein was detected in the walls of blood vessels without nucleocapsid expression. These findings indicate that myocarditis and coronary occlusive events were causally associated with a deleterious immune response to the Spike protein after injection of the second dose of the Covid vaccine.
Similar findings have been described in 15 patients with acute myocarditis following administration of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine confirmed by cardiac biopsy. The detection in cardiomyocytes of the Spikeprotein without simultaneous evidence of the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the presence of a lymphocyte inflammatory infiltrate in the lesion and the close temporal relationship with vaccination also support the development of a severe vaccine-induced autoimmune reaction as apathophysiological mechanism of myocarditis in these patients.
The incidence of myocarditis and acute pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination is between four and seven cases per 100,000 after BNT162b2 (Pfizer) and between nine and 28 cases after mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna), according to a cohort study of 23million Nordic residents (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland). Of those, 0.2 per cent (Pfizer) and 4.5 per cent (Moderna) died within 28 days of the second dose.
But symptomatic acute myocarditis requiring hospital admission is just the tip of the iceberg. The risk of subclinical myocardial damage is actually much higher. The results presented in August at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology held in Barcelona by Professor Christian Mueller confirm an incidence of subclinical myocarditis after the booster dose mRNA-1273 of at least 2.8 per cent (two orders of magnitude above the risk of acute myocarditis). What is crucial in this study is that virtually 100 per cent vaccinated individuals showed as early as three days after the booster dose some degree of myocardial damage verified by an increase in serum troponin concentration (a marker of inflammation and/or cardiac ischemia).
This indicates that Covid-19 mRNA vaccines routinely damage the heart (an organ that does not regenerate) and that clinically overt lesions are only the most severe cases of a much higher number of subclinical cases (one in 35 vaccinated). Acute myocarditis causes death in some patients, and the involvement of mRNA vaccines has been demonstrated at autopsy or by endomyocardial biopsy when deliberately investigated. Therefore, referring to these adverse effects of COVID vaccines as infrequent and generally benign, as health authorities and the media tend to affirm, is not consistent with reality. The truth is that they are alarmingly frequent and occasionally lethal, without also being able to rule out serious long-term sequelae as a result of irreversible heart damage that cannot be repaired by myocardial regeneration from the surrounding healthy tissue.
Cardiovascular disease, the main recognised cause of excess mortality, is not, however, responsible for all deaths. Since April 2021, shortly after the start of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, cancer mortality in the US and the United Kingdom begins to experience an unprecedented increase compared with pre-pandemic rates. Both countries already have an excess of 800 and 110 cancer deaths each week this year respectively (about 10 per cent of excess mortality from all causes). In Spain, there have been 1,300 more deaths from cancer in 2021 and 3,000 more deaths so far in 2022. The US already registers 31,900 more deaths from cancer since April 2021. An increase never seen before.
Clinically significant differences have been reported in patients who develop cancer after vaccination. They are generally younger patients, the tumour is larger, it usually has a faster and more invasive growth, tumours frequently appear in multiple organs and some patients in remission for many years experience sudden and very aggressive relapses.
This excess cancer mortality, coinciding with the vaccination campaign, obviously alone does not imply causation; but agood public health policy would automatically assign the obligation to suspect a possible cause-and-effect relationship given the magnitude of the excess, its temporal relationship with vaccination and the differential characteristics of the clinical presentation. Establishing a possible causal relationship requires first comparing cancer incidence by vaccination status, a study that health authorities have incredibly not yet undertaken (or at least this information is not publicly available).
The investigation of a possible relationship between Covid-19 vaccines and cancer is even more pressing after the publication of several studies that support the hypothesis of a possible genotoxic and carcinogenic potential. In the toxicity reports required for the authorisation of vaccines, manufacturers did not provide any genotoxicity studies (indeed, carcinogenicity or teratogenicity studies have not yet been carried out either). Hence, claims without any experimental evidence, such as those made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, or held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US Government, saying that the mRNA of vaccines breaks down rapidly in the cell without time to enter the nucleus and alter the DNA are openly contradicted by recent studies that show the opposite.
Researchers at the University of Lünd in Sweden published truly surprising findings in February, indicating rapid uptake by human liver cells of mRNA from the BNT162b2 vaccine and subsequent intracellular reverse transcription into DNA in as little as six hours after vaccine exposure. The evidence that the genetic material of Pfizer vaccine is capable of using the necessary cellular machinery to integrate into our DNA (endogenous reverse transcriptase), and therefore modify it, refutes the thesis that mRNA Covid-19 vaccines lack genotoxic potential.
Previously, another group of scientists from Stockholm University described that the Spike protein is abundantly located in the nucleus of human fibroblasts (when it was thought that its location was exclusively cytoplasmic) and inhibits DNA repair mechanisms (necessary to ensure its integrity and maintain cell genomic stability) by preventing recruitment of key proteins (BRCA1 and 53BP1). These findings reveal a potentially carcinogenic molecular mechanism of the Spike protein, with enormous implications in terms of Covid-19 vaccines safety and the responsibility of manufacturers and regulatory agencies for not testing these deleterious effects at the genomic level before commercialization.
At this point it is necessary to note the importance of the statement by Professor Skerritt, director of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration at the Senate Budget Session, in June 2021, at the request of Senator Malcolm Roberts on the potential of mRNA to enter the cell nucleus and cause potentially serious genetic adverse events that could affect future generations: ‘There is no evidence at all from animal or human studies that the RNA vaccines, if you’re talking about them, incorporate into the genetic material of human beings. They wouldn’t have received regulatory approval, and that includes by much bigger regulators such as the FDA, if these bits of mRNA incorporated into the human genetic material. In fact, medicines that incorporate into human genetic material and are inherited are currently not permitted in most major countries, including Australia.’ Professor Skerritt’s statement in the Senate predates the aforementioned publications. But according to their content, they would have to be taken into account before universally promoting the indiscriminate application of gene-based Covid-19 vaccines.
Indeed, the widespread use of these vaccines has already led to an extraordinary number of adverse event reports to pharmacovigilance systems in Europe (EudraVigilance), USA (VAERS), Australia (DAEN) and UK (MHRA Yellow Card), amounting 4,135,165 adverse reactions, including 49,451 deaths to date. In the US, 56,925 adverse reactions and 162 deaths have been reported in children less than 18 years of age. Given the passive nature of pharmacovigilance systems, which creates a serious problem of underreporting, the number of actual adverse events is actually much higher than the reported notifications (around an estimated factor of 31).
In Spain, until August 31, 2022, a total of 80,941 notifications of adverse reactions in relation to COVID-19 vaccines have been registered in the database of the Spanish Pharmacovigilance System (FEDRA), of which 13,627 were considered serious and 467 had a fatal outcome. This register has been operational since 1983, and a total of 429,000 adverse drug reactions have since been included. Therefore, in just 20 months, adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines represent no fewer than 19 per cent of all notifications recorded over 40 years in our country. On the other hand, considered together, the remaining vaccines used in general in the Spanish population (influenza, hepatitis B, polyvalent, mumps, polio, measles, papilloma, tetanus, chickenpox and herpes zoster) have caused in these 40 years a number of adverse effects ten times lower (7,955) than Covid-19 vaccines in 20 months.
Faced with such a gigantic deviation and never seen before, it is questionable that the Spanish Medicines Agency (AEMPS)has not yet interpreted this disproportion as a powerful alarm signal of a possible risk to the health of the recipients of COVID-19 vaccines. A deafening silence, less understandable if possible in light of the information available on cardiac toxicity (in 100 per cent of vaccinated), carcinogenic potential and excess mortality that, with all certainty, has been duly analysed by the AEMPS. Much less worrisome alarms cause the suspension of the marketing of other drugs. A stringent vigilance that is not being applied to Covid vaccines.
The need for research is urgent.Although it should have been done with the clinical trials promoted by the manufacturers, there is now no alternative but to decree a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccines to allow for retrospective analysis and meticulous re-evaluation.
If we continue to ignore these safety signals, we are failing to do our due diligence to protect patients. We have a collective duty to restore the principles of medical ethics in our practice and clinical research – primum non nocere – to protect the most vulnerable groups from unwanted harm, especially children less than 12 years of age who are already being vaccinated in our country.
In the absence of long-term adverse effects data, the Covid-19 mRNA vaccination should be paused while a comprehensive safety investigation is carried out, definitive toxicology, genotoxicity and teratogenicity results are obtained, and it is firmly and unequivocally established that the benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the risks. An urgent institutional academic investigation is needed.