Bronny James’s cardiac arrest has again raised the issue of how rare or frequent cardiac injury is in the aftermath of receiving an mRNA vaccine, especially among young males. Last Tuesday was the two-year anniversary of an incident during a bicycle race in Belgium, which might have already settled the issue had it been more widely known.
On August 15th, 2021, Yarno van Herck, a rising star of the Acrog-Tormans cycling team, began having shooting pains in his chest during a junior-division race in the Flemish town of Vorselaar. Van Herck would fight through the pain to somehow make it to the finish line. But after the race, his parents would rush him to the hospital, where he would be diagnosed with myocarditis and admitted to intensive care.
Yarno van Herck was 15 years old at the time. Two days earlier, he had received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Dramatic footage of the young cyclist in obvious distress and incapable of responding to a reporter’s questions can be viewed here from the Flemish regional broadcaster RTV.
But what makes the incident particularly significant is that van Herck was the third member of the Acrog-Tormans junior squad to develop heart problems in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19 vaccination in a period of just three weeks. The summer of 2021 was, of course, the summer of the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines to younger age groups.
According to the team’s sporting director Jef Robert, three weeks before the Vorselaar incident, van Herck’s then 17 year-old teammate, Joppe Erpels, developed severe heart problems one day after a race and likewise just two days after being vaccinated against COVID-19. Erpels would also be admitted to intensive care. Indeed, his condition was so serious that, according to Robert, there were fears for the young man’s life.
A third team member, Xander Verhagen, developed heart problems while training just one day after being administered a COVID-19 vaccine. The then 17 year-old Verhagen was able to avoid hospitalisation and recover at home.
At the time, the Acrog-Tormans junior squad consisted of just 80 cyclists. According to Jef Robert, all of them were vaccinated. Three out of 80 gives a rate of cardiac events in the aftermath of vaccination of greater than one in 27!
It is worth recalling in this connection that a Thai cohort study of cardiovascular effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in adolescents uncovered five confirmed or suspected cases of myocarditis and two confirmed cases of pericarditis in a sample of just 301 vaccinees. Moreover, a closer look at the data (see below) reveals that all of the cases involved males. 202 of the study participants were male.
This gives a rate of incidence of myocarditis among male participants of around one in 40 and of myocarditis or pericarditis of around one in 29.
Happily, Yarno van Herck made a relatively quick and remarkable comeback from his heart problems. Just two months after the dramatic events in Vorselaar, he not only resumed racing, but even made it onto the podium with a second-place finish. Xander Verhagen appears also to have quickly resumed racing. However, a search of Belgian cycling sites does not turn up any evidence that Joppe Erpels has returned to competitive cycling.
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on Twitter.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
There was also poor Sonny Cobrelli who collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at the finish line after finishing in second.
I think you are failing to take into account far more likely causes. I did a quick search of the media and easily came up with a list of reasons for the increase in heart attacks with no need to resort to a conspiracy theory that the vaccine might have done it.
It could be:
Unexpected referee whistle blowing – do we know if there were any marshalls with whistles by the side of the course? According to the Irish Examiner, this can be a cause.
Perhaps these cyclists each shook their duvets too vigorously before the race, that too is a well known cause according to ITV.
Or it was the ice bath these guys have after their races, the Express have made it clear cold showers can be a reason for the uplift in heart attacks
The Guardian note it could be artificial sweetener. Have you checked they don’t use it? Have you ruled that out? If not you are being very irresponsible and should be banned from commenting.
CNN note climate change is hurting babies hearts, and since climate change has been occurring for a number of years, perhaps their hearts were damaged by that when they were babies?
The Sun note that green fingers can kill you. Are we sure they didn’t engage in a spot of gardening before the race?
Perhaps also it was because they stopped wearing masks. CBS noted an increase in heart attacks correlating with too little mask wearing.
The Mail Online note being sarcastic is correlated with increased heart conditions. Do we know for sure these cyclists aren’t excessively sarcastic?
Great comment!
Shows Daily Sceptic readers are a careful lot. I thought there would be at least one downvote from someone who didn’t read more than the opening paragraph!
There are 5 downvotes at this moment in time!
Excellent analysis – humour is such a powerful weapon.
You also failed to take into account the most obvious cause of all – cycling. Of all the stupid things to afflict your body with, outdoor exercise must rank the most dangerous.
I’ll tell that to my 87y old friend, who cycled up Mt Ventoux with me 5 years ago.
Sarcasm is the lost art nowadays. Well done!
Still, at least they didn’t kill Granny, eh?
Says who? For all we know they were hugging Granny 24/7 after they got their shots, glowing with the knowledge that the “safe and effective” vaxx would stop the virus dead in its tracks.
I don’t know the precise legal position there, but you’d have thought that some solicitors will be sharpening their pencils over that, given the emerging evidence. Even if the manufacturer is immune to any damages claim, someone else might not be.
HMG agreed to underwrite any damage claims, the only out they would have is if fraud was involved.
Fraud was involved. “Safe and effective”, the biggest fraudulent claim ever!
The person administering the jab is ultimately responsible.
The outcome from those little trials held almost eighty years ago in a city named Nuremberg…
The person who voluntarily walks into a clinic specifically to have the clot shot is ultimately responsible.
Many nurses giving the jab were not made aware by their employer (the NHS/government) that there were severe risks.
Most nurses thought they were helping people.
Not reported on the BBC. Why did they miss it?
Most clot shot injuries were from a few tainted batches.
They probably all had it from the same batch.
Don’t know why you’ve attracted seven rather sad downticks. Was there a not a study done recently if adverse events per batch that showed exponential differences?
I don’t know either why my statement of fact which supports the sceptical view has so many negative thumbs down.
“Bad Pfizer Vaccine Batches Account for 4.2% of doses but 71% of Serious Adverse Events
Explains Why Some Have Severe Side Effects and Others Do Not.”
https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/bad-pfizer-vaccine-batches-account
“In conclusion, the results suggest the existence of a batch-dependent safety signal for the BNT162b2 vaccine, and more studies are warranted to explore this preliminary observation and its consequences.”
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13998
Perhaps a downvoter could explain why they have a problem with it.
Yes, the reaction is disappointing.
You make a good point GHF as we have to be cautious when blaming “the vaccines”. First and most obviously the vaccines differed depending on which company product you got stuck with. Then there is the batch numbers/harms that correlate, then there are all those probable placebos that were not tested in Germany (and other places presumably). We need to be much more subtle and specific when discussing vaccine harms.
There shouldn’t be such a thing as a “bad batch” in a pharmaceutical product!!!!!!
Yes Bettina you are correct, there should be NO “bad batches” or any adverse effects from any pharmaceuticals but unfortunately there are and that is why I am not on any medication and haven’t had a jab for over 40 years.
I worked with the FDA in the USA in the noughties on a medical device. Their timeline for approval was a minimum of 10 years following safety and efficacy clinical trials. This is why I have never and will never take this experimental jab.
How anyone can still kid themselves that Big Brother loves them, after knowing that a cluster of incidents like that do not get a drug banned, is boggling. But they do……